Yondaime Gaiden
by MHS
Summary: Before becoming Hokage he was just a boy dreaming of being a ninja. Join Jiraiya, Katsu, Ryokumaru, and Minato in their misadventures that ultimately lead up to the showdown between the defender of the village and the cataclysmic demon that threatens all.
1. Introduction

Hello and welcome to the Yondaime Gaiden! This story is more or less a tale about the Fourth Hokage, Jiraiya, and supporting characters. There are just a few points I have to make before we can get to the story though. The first thing is, almost nothing is really known about the Yondaime, so I'm going to have to make up a lot. When I say a lot, I mean, a lot. The only thing I have to work with when it comes to his team is a picture with three kids. One is Yondaime, another is obviously a boy, and the other, well, I'm not sure what gender that one is. In this fiction, all three students of Jiraiya will be male (nothing says there has to be one female in Genin squads, I think the concept of purposely balancing gender for Genin squads is a little silly).

Now, by the time I'm done, I am almost positive that there will be more canon information on the Yondaime, and on Naruto all together. However, I'm not going to quickly try and adapt my story to canon, and change my plot. This is fan fiction, and what you read in the story, is canon for the story. As for updates, well, I'll try and get them out fast, but I can't guarantee they'll always be on time. I can guarantee that I will not forget about this story, and it will be completed, even if it takes a while (the fact that it's going to be so long doesn't make it any easier for me). Lastly, I don't own Naruto or anything I may possibly reference in this. I do own the story, and take pride in writing it. I hope you enjoy it.

**Edit: **This story's original Yondaime Hokage was named Kazama Arashi, but due to developments, I've changed his name to Namikaze Minato. However, even though my fiction takes a different course of plot then canon does, as it should, will, and is intended to, I won't change anything else.

**Edit Again: **Because this story was unfinished and found its way back into my mind, it's getting a huge overhaul. Oddly enough, despite having changed all "Arashi"s into "Minato"s, I've never been able to think of him as anybody but Kazama Arashi. I would change them back to what it originally was, but that would be work, so it isn't happening.

"Talking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Casting Jutsu"**

**

* * *

****-Chapter One: Introduction-**

Jiraiya patted the monument and stood. The sky was grey today, but it had yet to rain. It was almost as if the weather was grieving with him. But dwelling on the past wouldn't do anything. It especially wouldn't help him move forward.

"Goodbye, Tousan." Jiraiya said in a low voice. He had on a hakama with green trim, tabi socks and sandals. He was a young man, twenty-four to be exact, but had hair as white as an old man's. This didn't bother Jiraiya though, it was part of him; his hair had been that way since he was a child. He had dark eyes, and red strips on his cheeks.

He left the memorial and made his way to the Hokage tower. He still wasn't completely sure why his old instructor wanted to talk with him, but it would be good to see him again. Once he got there, a simple nod to the guards got him access to the building, and he made his way to the familiar office room.

The white-robed man was sitting at his desk as usual, but Jiraiya also saw his two old peers. The first of them was pacing the floor until Jiraiya opened the door, wearing a loose v-neck shirt and blue shorts, her blonde hair held back with her Konoha forehead protector. The other was leaning against the wall towards the corner. He wore a black kimono, with a black jonin vest over it.

"Jiraiya, how many times have I told you to wear your vest." The Hokage greeted him with a sigh, and then began to light his pipe. Jiraiya entered and closed the door behind him, turning to see Orochimaru snicker at their former instructor's comment.

"And you, Orochimaru, I haven't seen you wearing your forehead protector lately." The Hokage turned his gaze. Orochimaru, needless to say, stopped laughing and glared at the Hokage.

Jiraiya walked farther into the room. "So, Ojisan, what's this all about? Team reunion?" The blonde was about to open her mouth when the Hokage interrupted.

"Not exactly Jiraiya. Actually, allow me to congratulate you and Tsunade again on becoming Jonin. It really makes me proud to finally see that all of my students have grown so much." The old man gave a warm smile around the room, that was only returned by two people.

"Well, not _everything_ has grown, Tsunade's as flatchested as ever—"

Jiraiya's sentence died from a swift punch to the gut, winding him. Tsunade stood over him, eyebrow twitching. The Hokage raised his head back in laughter while Orochimaru remained still.

After Tsunade calmed down, the Hokage regained composure, and Jiraiya made sure his ribs were all intact, the old man continued his speech.

"I guess I'll get to the point. You three are, and always will be, my beloved students. But I think it's time that you saw things from my point of view." Jiraiya raised his eyebrow.

"What I'm trying to say is, now that your all Jonin, I think it's time that you took Genin teams."

Orochimaru, didn't respond, but just thought about what he had just heard. Jiraiya just had a heavy look of 'huh' on his face, and Tsunade laughed. The Hokage wasn't quite expecting these reactions. Tsunade was the first to speak.

"Your serious? I mean, shouldn't we be older before we take Genin? Besides, if we take Genin teams, then the three of us won't be able to work together on missions anymore."

Jiraiya, once his look of 'huh' passed, answered her question in a serious tone. "I was wrong when I thought this was a team reunion. Actually, it's quite the opposite." He turned to face Tsunade.

A look of understanding dawned upon her, and she glanced over at Orochimaru, and realized that she was the last person to figure it out.

Jiraiya continued. "Our team wasn't over when the three of us became Chunins, or when Orochimaru became a Jonin. Even after Sarutobi-sensei became Hokage, it was still the three of us."

"He's exactly right." Sarutobi inserted. "No matter what, I've always been your teacher, and you've always been my students. I'm asking you to pass on your knowledge to the next generation."

The room was then quiet; serious enough that one might have trouble breathing through the tension. Orochimaru uncrossed his arms and removed himself from the wall, and walked to the center of the room, making eye contact with no one.

"I have no need, nor desire to teach another." Was all he said before leaving the office. Not long after, Tsunade turned to answer the Hokage.

"I really don't think I'm ready, I have so much to learn, and well, I've only just become a Jonin. You really should have talked to Orochimaru about it more, he's been a Jonin longer then me and Jiraiya. Besides, he's probably going to become…well, that's not important. I just don't think it would be a good idea for me to do something like this at my current age. Sorry, Sarutobi-sensei." She nervously left the room. As soon as the door closed behind her, Jiraiya dropped into a chair and let out a sigh.

"You know, Ojisan, this appointment is really taking a toll on me. I was going to go 'training' today."

The Hokage gave a crooked smile. "You mean,_ that_ sort of training?"

The two made eye contact, which was enough to send them both into a laughing fit. They both understood how Jiraiya trained.

"But really Sarutobi-sensei" Jiraiya said after the initial humor passed. "I really don't think that any of us are ready for this, not now at least."

"Jiraiya…out of any of my students, you're the one who should consider this the most."

Jiraiya paused and looked at Sarutobi. "What do you mean? Out of any of us, I'm the one who _shouldn't_ consider this the most. I may be a Jonin, but I'm certainly not the best. Hell, Tsunade and Orochimaru are both way beyond me, and Orochimaru is even going to become the Yondaime."

Sarutobi's eye twitched as Jiraiya brought this up. It was a sour subject. Jiraiya continued.

"It isn't like no one knows…everyone sees that he's the most compatable of any of us to become Hokage some day. You know that it's his dream. Tsunade isn't a good leader, she could never deal with the amount of paper work and stress it takes to be Hokage, and me, well—"

"Your made for something else." The Hokage interrupted. "A Hokage doesn't make his village strong, Jiraiya, a village makes a Hokage strong."

Sarutobi gave Jiraiya a smile. He didn't quite understand what his sensei was trying to explain to him, at least not yet. He couldn't muster a response. The Hokage reached under his desk into a drawer and took out a file, and put it on his desk in front of Jiraiya. He looked up as if to question, but he was cut off.

"Jiraiya, I want you to take this team, should they pass their genin tests, which I'm confident they will. Jiraiya…I'm asking you not as a Hokage, nor as a teacher, but as a friend. There are things in life that will be lost, but we always have to leave room open for new things."

An image of Jiraiya's father flashed through his mind. What Sarutobi said was true, he had lost things. But maybe he was right, there was still room in his heart for new things.

Jiraiya said nothing, and instead took the file and opened it, flipped through the formal parts of it, and landed on pictures and names of the children. He read their names to himself.

"Rokku Ryokumaru, Otonashi Katsu, Namikaze Minato…"

* * *

**-End Chapter One-**

Thanks for reading! Please review.

Just for a note about reviews, I'll probably post these without giving them the least bit of spell checking or any checking for that matter. If there is a legitimate flaw to point out, go ahead, but only do so if it is something that I can fix down the line, since I won't repost chapters often.

Preview - Chapter Two: Children of the Future


	2. Children of the Future

**Edit:** Here once stood a huge author's note with me talking about a lot of stuff. Let me sum it up. I did the math with ages, and the Yondaime was only Hokage for a year.

**-Chapter Two: Children of the Future-**

Minato's blue eyes shot open. Within the same instant, he was fully alert. His head turned to face the clock on the night stand next to him. Six-o'clock on the second. He sat up and stepped out of bed, pulled on his morning robe, tied it with its sash, slipped his slippers on, and opened the windows in his room. As this was done, he made his bed, and then dropped to the floor, doing his few morning push-ups, rolled over, did his sit-ups, and then stood once more, looking at the clock again. Six-oh-five, on the second.

"You're such a slave to time it isn't even funny." Minato turned to his door to see Minato. She sighed and shook her head. Minato didn't respond to her, nor did he change his facial expression. She was a head taller then him, and wearing a pink morning robe, contrast to his blue one. Her long blonde hair was untidy and stood up somewhat in the back, and her eyes, though blue as Minato's, weren't half as alert.

"Today is the day." Minato spoke with a quiet voice, not far from a whisper.

She ignored his comment and walked in the room, completely barefoot Minato noticed, and probed his hair with her eyes.

"Why is it that you can always wake up with perfect looking hair?!" She said and bent slightly putting her face only inches away from Minato's. The top of her robe was a little revealing. Minato blushed and turned his head to the side while closing his eyes.

"Please don't put your face so close to me, Sora-san." He spoke, still keeping his voice nice, quiet, and maybe a slight hint of mysterious.

He felt her hand on his head, and then it violently shaking, messing up his hair, while inflicting minor pain on Minato's part.

"That hurts!" Minato proclaimed

"What have I told you about calling me 'san' Minato?! It makes me sound like an old lady!"

"Sorry Sora-neechan! Sorry!" He pleaded, his voice squeaking.

She stopped, and laughed. "That's better! And you don't have to go around talking all 'ninja' around me, what have I told you about that?"

Minato was holding his head with one hand. "But as of today, I will be a ninja."

"That's only if you pass the tests." She said with a smirk.

"I _will_ be a ninja." He said with enthusiasm.

She laughed again and he raised an eyebrow.

"Sometimes I think the only thing you really put emotion into is being a ninja. Oh well, lets get you some breakfast Minato."

**-An Hour Later-**

Minato left the house after waving goodbye to Sora. He wore a tin white hoodie, hood down of course, and blue shorts, that in his opinion, matched his eyes, and black sandals common to most ninja. He made sure to carefully tape his ninja gear to his leg, and took inventory of them as well.

Minato jogged all the way to the academy. Once he got to his class room, he looked inside to see only two other students, out of the eighteen. This meant he was somewhat early. Either way, he didn't recognize either of them. Minato actually didn't know many people in his class, since he didn't socialize with them. He smiled, and looked over to see on of his sensei's. He approached, and politely bowed, before greeting him.

"Ohayo Jiro-sensei."

"Early as ever." Jiro smiled. He wore a simple chunin outfit, and was at least in his late twenties, probably still working at the academy out of enjoyment or habit. "You know, I've been telling you this since day one, but you don't have to bow and greet me personally _everyday_."

"I apologize, Jiro-sensei." Minato responded and then made his way to the desks to take his usual seat.

"He says that everyday too…" Jiro mumbled.

Students slowly made their way into the class room in the following minutes, as well as Minato's other sensei, Akio. Akio wore pretty much the same outfit as Jiro, except he was somewhat younger. From what they knew, he had only become a chunin a few years ago.

"Want the honors?" Jiro asked Akio, once he saw everyone was settled and his companion was there.

"Sure." Akio answered. He turned to all of the students, and spoke. "Now you all know I'm not one for talking, and that Jiro-sensei is much better at these sorts of speeches then I am. However, let the record show that I'm not as lazy as Jiro-sensei."

The students in the class laughed, and Jiro rolled his eyes while Akio smiled, and eventually continued. "Today is the day that you will all be taking the Genin exams. If this is the first time you're hearing this, then it probably means you haven't been paying any attention, and it would be best for you to leave before we begin—"

"The test is TODAY!" A student yelled. Minato looked over at him, surprised by the outburst. Minato was always quiet and behaved in class; if only everyone else was like this.

"—that was for you, Ryokumaru-san." Akio sighed.

"What? Me! Quit! Impossible! I'll ace this Genin test for sure!" Ryokumaru exclaimed, now standing.

"That's great, Ryokumaru-san, really. Now…can I get back to talking?"

Ryokumaru looked up and realized that everyone was watching him, and sat back down, slightly embarrassed at his antics.

"Anyways, like I was saying. If you don't feel like you are ready for this test, then it is best to back out. You can indeed be hurt doing this." Akio looked around the room, and no one left. "Alright then. Well, first, we'll be doing a Jutsu test. Jiro-sensei and I will go into the next room over, and we're going to take you in one at a time. You are all already seated alphabetically, if you haven't noticed, and that is the order you'll take the tests. I wish you all good luck on this exam. Hopefully by the end of the day, I'll be able to look at all of my students as Genin." He gave a warming smile, and then left with Jiro into the other room.

Once he left, several of the students began to talk about the exam, or even other things in general. Some even practiced hand seals. Minato however, sat silently and motionlessly. He wasn't nervous, well, not about the test, he just didn't know how to respond around other people. He never had. Socializing really wasn't his thing, and he didn't need any practice. The last thing he needed was to jinx himself about over worrying about the test.

Finally, it was Minato's turn, and he entered the room. Jiro and Akio sat at a desk, and they had a long piece of tape from one end of the room to the next. It had measurements on it.

"It's finally Minato turn, well, this should be interesting." Jiro smiled. "Now, the first thing we need to test is the Shunshin no Jutsu _(Body Flicker)_. I want you to stand at on end of the tape, and try and get yourself all the way to the other side with a Shunshin. You'll be graded on distance you travel, and time it takes you to perform your hand seals." Minato nodded, and took his position.

"You may begin….now!" Jiro spoke once he and Akio were ready. They watched Minato's hand movements carefully as he made the seals, making sure they weren't sloppy. Sure enough, they were great. Far from perfect, but the best they could want from someone of Minato's level. The problem was they were slow. Extremely slow. It took Minato twice, if not three times as long as it took any of the other students they'd seen so far, to perform the proper hand seals. Once he released the chakra however, the execution was flawless, and he landed on the far end of the tape. The teachers looked down to make marks. He was top notch in performance and technique, but was significantly slow, which brought his grade down.

"Alright, good work Minato! Now we need you to perform A Henge no Jutsu on…you know what the Hokage looks like, right?" Jiro asked, and Minato nodded. "Good. Become the Hokage."

"Like before, you will be graded on time to perform the jutsu, as well as the effectiveness of the jutsu itself. You maybe begin…now!" Akio finished Jiro's statement.

Minato had the same problem as before. His hand seals were good, but he was slow in performing them. Finally, he released his chakra and executed the technique. **"Henge no Jutsu!"** _(Transformation Technique)_

Minato's transformation was good, probably the best Jiro and Akio had seen all morning. Still…he was slow.

"Now, just stay like that Minato, and perform a Bushin no Jutsu. This one will be hard, since you'll have to keep your bushins transformed. Again, you'll be graded on performance and speed."

Minato made his slow hand seals, and released his chakra again. He could feel it being strained, since he had to keep a Bushin no Jutsu and a Henge active at the same time. **"Bushin no Jutsu!" **_(Clone Technique)_

And there were three very detailed clones of Minato as the Hokage in front of Akio and Jiro. They were impressed by the skill he could had, and the amount of Chakra Minato had. They had only expected one clone, and most couldn't even maintain both jutsu's very well. Still, Minato was slow.

Jiro and Akio quickly totaled Minatoi's scores. He did exceptional in performing all the jutsu, but ranked poor in speed, bringing him to a slightly greater then average score.

"That was great Minato, but your all done for now. Your dismissed." Jiro told him, while prepairing for the next student.

Minato left the room, feeling quite good. Sure, he was a little slow with the jutsu, but it couldn't be helped. If he didn't focus enough, he might have made a mistake. It was better that he ensured the techniques worked right.

He retook his seat, and waited patiently for the rest of the students to finish the exam, so they could get on to part two.

It took at least another hour, but finally, the last student reentered the room, followed by Jiro and Akio. Whatever people had been talking about before, it all stopped now. Everyone was focused while Jiro and Akio finished the final parts of their papers, and then did a quick prep for the next part. Jiro then stood to speak to the class.

"Everyone did fairly well, however, this next part is where it gets messy. We need everyone to sign a release before you can take this second part of the test." He turned to Akio, who promptly passed out the papers. Everyone turned in the sheet, though some later then others.

"Alright." Jiro continued. "Now that that's over with, I need everyone to meet me and Akio outside." He and Akio then performed a quick shunshin to take themselves outside, while the class make their way into the hall and out the door, meeting their instructors. There was a line of dummies on the field.

"In the same order you took your jutsu tests, we need you to line up so we can do the weaponry tests. Everyone is going to be given eight shuriken, and you must target the eight vital spots on the target." Jiro pointed to the dummy as Akio said this. "You will be graded on the number of vitals you hit, and the speed you throw the shurikens.

The students slowly began taking the tests, while Jiro watched for the vitals and style of throwing, and Akio timed them. Most students threw the shurikens one after another and hit with about five of the them, but getting maybe two or three vitals. On Minato's turn, he slowly took aim with every single shuriken, and threw them one at a time. By the end, the class wasn't sure to be amazed or not. He had taken well over a minute to do the test, but every shuriken hit its vital.

Jiro and Akio noted the same problem. Minato was slow. His accuracy was keen, there was no question, but it took him too long to take aim. His total for this turned out to be again, slightly higher then average.

Then came that other student. Minato only paid half attention to most of the other classmates, but this one he watched. The boy had dark hair and wore purple, and when given the shurikens, he turned around, and in one swift motion, threw all eight. Seven it the vitals, the other one missed. Minato was impressed. So was the rest of the class. Jiro and Akio not as much, having seen the boy ace the jutsu test, they expected something like this. Eventually, the entire class had finished the test.

"Okay students, this next part is where things become dangerous." Akio spoke. Some of the class grew pale. "You're going to line up, and Jiro will throw one shuriken at you. Now, keep in mind, me and Jiro are Chunins, you won't be able to dodge our attacks. Instead, we want you all to use the Kawarimi no Jutsu _(Body Replacement Technique)_. It is possible to be hurt during this test, so be careful."

Everyone took their positions, and the test began. Akio kept records of how fast they managed to do the jutsu, and how effective it became. Some barely made it in time, and had difficulty finding a replacement object. When it came time for Minato, Jiro gulped, and reluctantly threw the shuriken. Minato, to the ease of everyone else, managed to perform the jutsu quickly. Jiro sighed, and Akio finally gave Minato a decent speed grade.

Once Minato was done, he waited with the rest while the remaining students took the test. Then it came to him.

Minato recognized him as Ryokumaru, since Akio said his name that morning. He was sweating, and when Jiro threw the shuriken, it impacted, as it had done with everyone else. All watched closely for the puff of smoke and to see what he used for a replacement. Instead, blood dropped onto the ground. Ryokumaru screamed out in pain and keeled over. Jiro and Akio were there in an instant. The whole class, save Minato and one other, seemed to panic at their fellow classmate being hurt. Jiro spoke to Akio.

"I'll take him down to the hospital, you continue the tests here." He said seriously. Akio nodded.

"No! I'm not done here!" Ryokumaru practically screamed. He started to stand.

"Ryokumaru-san, you shouldn't be standing." Akio said, and Jiro tried to help him back down.

"I said I'm not done here! I'm staying for the next test. I'm going to become a ninja and maybe someday, the Hokage! I will _not_ be defeated here!"

Everyone was in awe, including Jiro and Akio, as Ryokumaru was standing again. He was clutching his chest, which was gushing blood, with one hand, but managed to smile.

"Jiro-sensei, you should take him anyways." Akio spoke calmly.

Jiro just looked Ryokumaru in the eyes. "You know, you'll be marked as failing this test, and you'll have almost no chance of becoming a Genin with your current marks. It would be easier to back out now, Ryokumaru-san."

"I'm…going to be a Genin, no matter what." Minato saw a strange sort of resolve in Ryokumaru's eyes. It was…illogical, not the thing a ninja would do. It was certainly not something Minato would do. Then again, Minato would have made sure he wouldn't have been hit in the first place.

Jiro smiled. "I'll let him go, Akio. I'm taking him inside while I give him some quick medical jutsu treatment. You finish testing the rest."

Akio nodded, even though he was hesitant.

"Now class, I'm sure Ryokumaru will be just fine. This last part is the most dangerous however. You will use a kunai, and can dodge or block, five shurikens I throw at you. You will be judged solely on how effective you evade the attacks. Class…students, everyone do your best."

The next test actually went faster then Minato thought it would. Most of the students were nervous, but once they got up there, dodging the shurikens wasn't very hard at all. Akio followed a pattern, and it was easy to dodge the first three, and block the last two. Minato felt he did exceptional on it, having read all of Akio's movements. No one was hurt.

When Ryokumaru and Jiro returned, the rest of the class had finished. Ryokumaru took the position for the final test, his wound smaller, but not gone. He held his kunai tightly, and Akio began throwing.

Ryokumaru ducked under the first one, and felt a splitting pain in his gut from his injury. He saw another shuriken coming right at him, and blocked it with his kunai, but barely. He tried to prepare himself for the next attacks, but the pain was so much. He winced, and three shuriken flew by his head, one at a time. By the time he realized what happened, Akio was already making marks. Ryokumaru put his head down in defeat. His sensei missed with those last three shuriken on purpose.

"Class, everyone can head back to the classroom now."

Once back in the classroom, Ryokumaru seemed to be the topic of many people's gossip. Jiro and Akio quietly conversed with each other while filling out paperwork, and after about half an hour, they began calling up students one at a time, who would leave the room afterwards. When Minato was called, he bowed in front of Jiro, and then gave him a smile. Jiro was authentically proud of Minato's results. He handed Minato a paper first, showing his marks. Minato surveyed it.

He scored high, very high, in doing everything. However, he saw what was keeping him down. It was his speed. Minato was sluggish, and if he could have gotten faster, he might have been higher. Over all, he scored 8th out of eighteen. Jiro then handed Minato a metal plate. Minato took it, and felt instantly warm inside. He had done it. He had finally become a Genin.

He had become a ninja.

"Alright, little Minato, just take that forehead protector home and find something to mount it on. It is your symbol that you are a ninja of Konoha. Also, report to the next room to have your license picture taken." Minato nodded, bowed, and headed into the next room.

After Minato left, but before they called the next student, Jiro turned to speak to Akio. "I think he'll go far."

Akio shrugged. "Who knows?"

**-The Next Day-**

Minato was waiting in his classroom. Jiro and Akio were not there. Instead, he would meet his Jonin instructor. Yesterday Sora had gotten a blue strip of fabric and mounted Minato's forehead protector on it, which Minato had wrapped in his pocket. He wore the same clothes, shorts and a hoodie, but he felt a little different today. Maybe it was because he was a Genin. Today was his first day as a ninja.

There were only two other people in the room with him. One of them was Ryokumaru, from yesterday. He had tan skin, his hair was a very short black, and his eyes were dark green when fully open, but he usually kept them narrow. He wore somewhat longer shorts then Minato, tan in color, and a loose green shirt with short sleeves. A fishnet undershirt could be seen around his collar. He, like Minato, didn't wear his forehead protector, but had it on him no doubt. He seemed to be back to his usual self.

The other was the amazing boy who had scored seven vitals on the weapons training test yesterday, with only one throw. He had long dark hair. He had bangs, but the length of his hair in the back was tied as if in a pony tail, but it was bound on the top of his head. Minato looked at it several times, and it still seemed odd. His eyes were blue, like Minato's, but not as bright, and he wore a sleeveless dark purple shirt, with light purple strips on the sides, and shorts similar to Minato's but black. He had a fingerless glove on one hand, and on the other, the same fingerless glove, but longer, reaching his elbow, and looking closer to a gauntlet then a glove due to the metal plating.

Resting against the side of his chair was a katana. It was large; probably adult sized, and had a plain black metal scabbard. The hilt couldn't be seen, as it and about half of the scabbard was wrapped in taping. Besides the sword being large for someone the boy's size, it just seemed odd for a Genin to have a katana. Minato tried to remember if the boy had always carried this sword with him.

He decided that he hadn't, and was only carrying it now that he had become a ninja. This was the most reasonable purpose. But why would a Genin carry a katana? Kunai and shuriken were the quintessential weapons of a ninja, not swords. They hadn't even had training in swords. Minato concluded that this boy had something to hide.

The door opened and a man came in. He was young, twenties Minato would assume, but had snow white hair. His eyes were dark, and he had red markings on his cheeks. A mole of some sort was on the side of his nose. He wore two shirts, the first one white and long sleeved, and one on top of that which was dark blue, and short sleeved, as to show the sleeves from his white shirt. On the back of the blue shirt was a red Konoha symbol, the same symbol he had on his forehead protector. He wore typical black pants, but no ninja tools could be seen.

Minato sat with his normal smile. Ryokumaru gave him an odd look. The other boy didn't pay attention to him.

"Geez, tough crowd, ehh? Well, it seems since you're the only people left, that I'm your Jonin instructor. How about you all…meet me on the roof of the Hokage tower, this classroom is boring."

He disappeared in a puff of smoke. Minato seemed to have the same idea as the dark haired boy, because the two of them flickered themselves outside. Minato was glad to be able to use jutsu now that he had his license. The other boy jumped onto the roof of a building and began making his way to the Hokage tower. Minato thought it was sort of rude to walk on people's roofs without a good enough reason, so he just walked. He didn't see Ryokumaru on his way.

Once he was at the base of the tower, he informed the guards of his destination, and was in time to see the other boy still jumping his way to the top. He had made better time then Minato, but he wasn't in a rush. Once at the top of the tower, he saw the man who would be his sensei sitting on a bench, and the boy sitting on the far side next to him. Minato approached them, but just stood and waited for their last member, who came about five minutes later.

"Took all of you long enough." The white-haired man said with a smile. Well, why don't all of you take a seat" he stood up. "And we can do introductions, how does that sound?"

Ryokumaru was panting. Minato and the other boy didn't break a sweat.

"I'll start off. My name is Jiraiya, and I was actually a student of the Hokage-sama. I became a Jonin about two weeks ago, and can't say that I planned on becoming a sensei. Either way, I hope that all of us can grow to work as a team. My hobbies include, well…"

Jiraiya looked left, he looked right, and then ducked down and spoke silently. "I like drinking sake and watching women do stuff." He had a larger-then-life grin.

He stood back up and spoke normally again. "Anyways, I dislike being interrupted in either of my hobbies, and my dream in life is…"

Jiraiya stared off into space before he answered. "I want to become a writer." He smiled and then pointed at Minato. "Okay, how about you go next."

Minato kept his smile while he talked. "My name is Namikaze Minato. My hobbies are reading books and talking with my neechan. I dislike being tardy for things. My dream is to…well that isn't important."

Jiraiya nodded at least four times, and then pointed to Ryokumaru.

"My name is Rokku Ryokumaru! My hobbies are playing sports and I dislike stuck up people who thing they're better then everyone else." Both Minato and the other boy glared at Ryokumaru, who was sitting in between them on the bench. "My dream is to someday become a powerful ninja, maybe even Hokage, but no matter what, prove that the Rokku clan is great!"

"Alright, and you're last." He pointed to the last boy.

"My name is Otonashi Katsu." The boy spoke, his voice quiet and smooth, not unlike Minato's, but it seemed to have even more of an air of mystery. "My hobbies are sparing with others or doing puzzles, and I dislike loud people." Ryokumaru got another glare. "My dream is to…learn about someone, and something."

Jiraiya nodded once again. "Great! Now that we're all introduced, we should—hey, where are all of your forehead protectors?"

Ryokumaru spoke. "Why would we need those? I mean…they really don't serve much of a purpose—"

Bam! Jiraiya pounded Ryokumaru in the forehead with two fingers, leaving red marks and knocking him strait off of the bench. Minato and Katsu looked at the boy, who seemed to be suffering from a bad case of the dizziness. They put on their forehead protectors in unison. Minato saw Katsu mounted his with a purple fabric. It wasn't hard to tell his favorite color. Once Ryokumaru got back up and found his way to the bench again, he put his green-fabric mounted forehead protector on.

Jiraiya was still laughing, and eventually put a hand on Minato's head, who wasn't quite sure what he was doing. Then Jiraiya spoke.

"Mina-chan."

He put his hand on Ryokumaru's head next.

"Ryo-chan."

Lastly Katsu's head.

"Kat-chan."

Then he removed his hand all together and crossed his arms. The three boys looked at each other, and Ryokumaru was the first to protest.

"I will not be called Ryo-chan!"

Katsu spoke as well. "Jiraiya-sensei, I do not wish to be called Kat-chan."

Minato nodded for his answer.

Jiraiya laughed again. "Those are your nicknames, and if you don't want them, you'll have to prove yourself to me." He gave a dark grin. "Your not all officially Genin yet either. I will give all of you're a test. At the end, only six of the original eighteen of you will be able to fully become ninja. I need all of you here at seven o'clock sharp tomorrow, for your final test."

All three students nodded, separately motivated to become ninja no matter what.

"Oh, one last thing, don't eat breakfast."

"What? Why not, Jiraiya-sensei, we'll be hungry." Minato spoke.

Jiraiya seemed to think about this. "Yeah, what the hell, go ahead and eat breakfast."

All three boys sweat-dropped.

_This is an odd sensei…he can't even make up his mind on trivial things._ Minato though to himself.

Jiraiya turned around. "Now I've got someplace to go. I want all of you to practice hard. Your dismissed."

**-Hokage Office-**

Fifteen minutes later Jiraiya was sitting in front of his former sensei's desk.

"So, how'd it go?" Sarutobi asked.

"Ehh, they all sort of creep me out. The Rokku isn't too hard to read, but he seems like the stubborn thick skulled type."

"So like you?"

"Very funny" Jiraiya scowled at the Hokage, who just chuckled.

"The Namikaze and Otonashi boys are odd, both of them seem really intuitive. Funny, I don't know a Namikaze clan or Otonashi clan."

The Hokage's expression turned serious. "That's because neither one of them exists. The Namikaze boy, he moved to Konoha at a young age with his guardian to become a ninja. I have his paper-work, but I can't say I know much about his family."

"So he immigrated here…what about the Otonashi?"

"Ever heard the name Otonashi Yuri?" The older man answered.

Jiraiya thought about it for a few moments, and then it dawned upon him. "He's _her_ child? I thought that she retired as a ninja? Why would she allow her son to become one?"

"It seems he must have gone against her will. Either way, he's motivated to work hard as a ninja."

Jiraiya rubbed his chin with his hand for a few minutes while he though. "So, a boy who we don't know anything about, that decided to become a ninja for unknown reasons; a boy who is going against his family's wishes to become a ninja, and graduated top of his class at that; and a boy who's clan is small and weak, wishing to return them to their former glory by becoming a spectacular ninja. These are the children of my team?" He looked up to face Sarutobi.

"These," Sarutobi took a puff of his pipe and then gave Jiraiya a smirk, "Are the children of the future."

* * *

**-End Chapter Two-**

As you can see, I have a lot of original creations. The Yondaime himself is practically OC in this, since I don't even have canon to work with, and where as the descriptions of his team I have from a picture, their characters are completely OC. Jiro, Akio, and Sora are just the start of a long list of persona I have to introduce.

Preview - Chapter Three: Mission Begin


	3. Mission Begin

**Edit:** Here once stood a huge author's note. Let me sum it up: blah blah blah.

**-Chapter Three: Perverted Mission Begin?!-**

Otonashi Katsu stood in front of the mirror in his bathroom. He wore his usual clothes, and just finished pulling his gauntlet onto his left arm. He looked at himself in the mirror, and then strapped his forehead protector on. He shook his remaining hair out, and then tied it like a pony tail, but mounting it on the top of his head.

He stepped out of his bathroom and walked down the dark halls of his house. He turned in the living room to see his mother. She was a thin pale woman, who always kept the lights of the house off. Her dark hair matched his, as well as her eyes. Unlike him, she reeked of smoke and alcohol, and crooked her face to grimly face him. She stared at him with a look that Katsu recognized as disgust.

"_Pathetic woman, to look at your own flesh with hate. Someday I will show you the errors in your ways."_

No words were exchanged, and Katsu continued until he got into his room. His living quarters were lackluster and uninteresting. It consisted of a bed with a nightstand and dresser off in the corner, a desk full of drawings, scrolls, and books with a reading light. A small television with respective electronics stood on a small table in front of a black zen sofa. Despite the large size of it being a bedroom, it seemed more like it was his entire house sometimes. Katsu rarely left his room, since it was the only room of the house devoid of the smells his mother carried with her.

Leaning against the wall was his sword. Its metal scabbard seemed to fit right in with the dim lighting of Katsu's room. He approached the sword and untapped the handle and hilt. The entire visible part of the weapon was a profound black, including the handle, its cord wrap, and the tsuba. However, the tsuba was decorated with blood red symbols.

Around the tsuba were chains and locks directly linking to the scabbard. The scabbard was bulky and heavy, as it didn't originally belong to it; the purpose of it was to keep the blade contained. Katsu had the real saya elsewhere. Katsu picked his sword up.

He took it in both hands. Besides the fact that it was heavy from bindings and the thick metal saya, it was an adult sized weapon, and he was only twelve years old. He made a horizontal swing at the air. In spite of all the flaws, Katsu had learned to somewhat wield the weapon in its still sheathed state.

"_Some say that you have a demon contained within you."_

He swung the weapon again, but over his head. The chains jingled together and clanked against the scabbard.

"_But I know the truth. You are no demon."_

Katsu pulled back dodging an invisible attacker and then lunging forward with the blade.

"_The only true demons in this world…"_

Katsu inverted his still extended weapon and closed his eyes to concentrate. He brought the weapon around in a semi-circle slash and finished with placing the katana onto his back, held by straps. A few seconds later, the reading lamp on the other side of the room shattered all over the desk and floor.

"…are the demons within the hearts of men."

**-Roof of Hokage Tower, 7:00 a.m.-**

Minato arrived to see Katsu had already beaten him there; his peer sitting on the bench. Ryokumaru had not yet arrived, and neither had Jiraiya. Minato took a seat on the bench next to Katsu, and smiled, though not looking at anything.

Katsu turned to look at Minato.

"You seem at ease, Minato-san, yet you are on your guard. You do not trust me." Katsu stated coolly.

Minato didn't turn to look at him, just spoke, still smiling. "How could I ever trust someone who carries a weapon as openly as you do. Besides, you don't trust me as well."

"How could _I _ever trust someone who wears a mask."

Minato turned to face him, with a look of seriousness. "I am not wearing a mask, Katsu-kun."

Katsu let a hint of a smirk cross his face. "Not that type of mask."

There was a pause while they both absorbed the moment, and then simultaneously turned to see Jiraiya standing behind them.

"Well, if it isn't Minar-chan and Kat-chan! Good to see you made it on time." Jiraiya bolted.

Katsu and Minato narrowed their gaze. "Jiraiya-sensei…we got here before you."

Jiraiya seemed to ponder this for a few moments.

"Yup." Was his simple answer. Katsu and Minato both sweat dropped and sighed.

Ten minutes later Ryokumaru finally arrived.

"Sorry if I'm late everyone!" He called while approaching the trio while getting reticent glances from Minato and Katsu. Eventually the former smiled and greeted him.

"Ohayo Ryo-kun."

Ryokumaru rolled his eyes and grumbled back. "Ohayo, Minato. Ohayo, Katsu."

Jiraiya broke the odd dialogue. "Today is when I test all of you on becoming Genin, so I need you all to listen carefully."

Ryokumaru took a seat next to Minato and the three listened intently to what their sensei had to say.

"Normally Genin tests are tedious and near impossible. A Jonin usually only takes one squad in their life, so they have to be very choosy. Most children who don't find a Jonin sensei to take them in grow too old and forget being a ninja. Two-thirds of the people you shared your academy years with will not become ninja. Actually, the three of you might not become ninja."

Jiraiya's suddenly serious tone caught them all off guard.

"My sensei gave me and my three team mates a bell test, which is quite common. It was a test designed to make the very enemies you face trying to become a Genin, the people your sitting next to, for only one could succeed."

Suddenly Minato, Katsu, and Ryokumaru were all eyeing each other. Each had different thoughts.

Ryokumaru began sweating. _"What!! I have to go up against Minato and Katsu?! No!! I'm screwed!!"_

Katsu simpered. _"So, I'm going to have to fight my team mates so soon, am I? This is unexpected, yet motivating."_

Minato's smile never faded, or even dimmed. _"Jiraiya-sensei had to battle his companions to become a Genin did he? That makes sense, that only the strongest become ninja. Even if this is true though…Jiraiya-sensei's team mates are ninja, so he can't be telling the whole truth."_

"But…" Jiraiya got _that_ look in his eye. "Who cares about all of that! I'm going to give you my own test!!" He quickly handed every boy a small camera before they were completely sure what he insinuated.

"Each of you should have five pictures."

The boys looked at each other in confusion. Minato raised his hand.

"Jiraiya-sensei, I have six pictures remaining on my camera."

"Huh? You do? Okay, let me see that for a moment…" Jiraiya took the camera from Minato and pointed it at himself, grinned and made a 'V' shape with his fingers close to his face. He took the picture, and handed the camera back to Minato.

"There, now you have five pictures left."

Minato sweat dropped.

"So where was I? Oh yes, each of you should now has five pictures. Now, all of are going to go out, and with those cameras, take pictures of—"

"Creative photography! I know how to do this!" Ryokumaru dived from his seat and slid on his knees while aiming the camera to the cliff with the two Hokage sculptures and snapped a picture.

Jiraiya sighed and picked the boy up by his collar and put him back on the bench.

"Actually no. What you're going to take pictures of is—"

Jiraiya jumped back and made a very over climactic pose.

"Very sexy naked women!!"

All three boys fell back on their benches from the sheer stupidity and shock of Jiraiya's statement.

Katsu was the first to pop back up, and made a very uncharacteristic outburst. "What the heck! You're asking us to take perverted pictures for you!! What does that have to do with being a ninja?!"

Minato was next, and he sighed. "Jiraiya-sensei, I have lost respect in you…"

Ryokumaru was smiling, which got a suspicious glance from Katsu and Minato.

He looked at both of them and shrugged.

"What are you looking at? I'm already a huge pervert." He grinned even deeper. "Who's the dobe now!"

Katsu and Minato, both with a very sadistic aura at the moment, cracked their knuckles and slowly moved towards Ryokumaru, who began to panic.

"Err, what I mean is, well, I uhh, I was trying to say—"

"—what he was trying to say is that you all only have four hours. Whoever brings me the best five pictures, gets to become a Genin!"

"What! But I already took a picture!" Ryokumaru complained.

"You all now have three hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty seconds." Jiraiya leered evilly.

All three boys then scrambled frantically in different directions, cameras in hand.

Jiraiya giggled as he started to walk away

As he took several steps a line of shuriken hit the ground in front of him.

"Ehh?" He turned around. "It's been a while."

**-Minato-**

After landing on the roof of a house, Minato leapt to the streets while clutching the camera with one hand. He observed it. It was a small, rectangular grew camera. Nothing odd about it. His sensei really wanted him to take pictures of nude women. But…why would a ninja do that as a test? It really doesn't make much sense; at least it didn't to Minato. Maybe it had some sort of secret inner meaning? That was beside the point. Where was he going to go to take pictures of nude women?

The first thing that hit Minato's mind was home. It hadn't been an hour since he met with his team, and Sora left for her work at about nine. He'd just have to ask her.

Once Minato got home, he slipped his shoes off and walked around looking for Sora. He found her putting her earrings on in front of the mirror.

"Minato? What are you doing home? I thought you were meeting with your team." She said, half looking at him, half making sure her hair and make up was on right.

"I already met with them." Minato responded. "But I was wondering if you could do me a favor first. I need to take some pictures to become a ninja. May I take pictures of you naked, Sora-neechan?"

Sora's mouth dropped, and she turned to face him, wondering if he was kidding. It had to be a total joke. He smiled when he looked at her and showed her his camera.

The last thing Minato recalled was her fist closing in to his face.

**-Katsu-**

He was sweating. He stood in front of a building, the only one that he could find in Konoha that met the description of what his sensei was looking for. He glanced at the sign again. Yup, definitely perverted.

Katsu looked left. He looked right. No one was watching. He quickly made the hand seals.

"**Henge no Jutsu!"** _(transformation technique)_

With a puff of smoke, the twelve year old cute body of Katsu was replaced with the fat, old body of a very greasy and sleazy looking man.

Said sleazy body hastily made his way into sleazy shop. He looked over to see a thin man at the counter. Numerous books and magazines and videos lined the shelves. Despite the fact that this was a small shop, it held large quantities of 'stock.'

Katsu approached the man at the front desk. He had _never_ practiced how to act sleazy, or even to be an older man. This was going to be bad…

"I want to see a naked woman." Katsu said, the large awkward body spitting as he talked.

"Okay pal…there's plenty of stuff around here…I'm sure you'll find something." The man at the front desk had been reading a magazine and now was giving Katsu a strange look.

"_Shit! Even the sleaze is suspicious of me!"_

"I do not wish to see any of these books. I want to actually see a live naked woman. Where are they?" Katsu looked around. Maybe they kept them in the back?

The guy at the counter laughed. "I'm _sure _you do buddy…look, just between you and me, I'm only in this for the ryou. Just because I'm working at a place like this doesn't mean that I'm a womanizer or pervert. Now either get something so you can buy it and move on, or go sneak into the hot spring down the street or whatever creeps like you do."

Katsu blinked. _"Hot spring down the street? But…taking pictures of people bathing is immoral."_

Katsu then had to weigh what was more important to him: his morals or being a ninja. Needless to say, Katsu booked it to the hot spring facility.

It was a moderately sized building, with a decent about of customers. Katsu entered and saw that it definitely had separate male and female baths, as to be expected. He looked left. He looked right. He quickly made the hand seals to do a different sort of henge this time.

After the puff of smoke, Katsu's appearance changed to that of a gorgeous brunette wearing only a bathrobe, her hair short and styled the same way it normally was.

The lady at the front desk leered at him. "I just saw you transform into a woman…your obviously a ninja."

Katsu started to sweat again. "No! Actually I was just undoing a previous jutsu, this is my true form!"

The lady just stared for a few seconds. "You just went from a shady looking man to…that, how am I supposed to believe you?"

"_Damn it! Looks like I'll have to break in."_

He thought too soon, because just as he finished the idea, she reached under her desk and showed him a Konoha forehead protector. She was a kunoichi. He wasn't getting in there any time soon.

Katsu sighed, and turned to leave. He really wasn't cut out for this perverted sort of thing. The perv shop was a bust, and he definitely wasn't getting back into that hot spring.

Katsu paused and realized something, then looked down at his henged chest. He had…well, those things that girls had. Actually, right now Katsu _was_ a girl. A cute girl at that.

The next thought that came to Katsu's mind made him want to vomit. He was left with the same choice: morals, or being a ninja.

**-Jiraiya-**

The white-haired man turned to face at the kunoichi. His face beamed.

"It has been a long time, a year now if I'm right." She responded.

She was the essence of dark beauty in Jiraiya's opinion. Her long, well-groomed black hair was in a ponytail, the end touching just above her waist. Her face was smooth and defined, with large dark eyes that stared as if into the heart of Jiraiya. The rest of her face however, including her nose and mouth, all the way to her neck, was covered with a tight black fabric. Actually, the fabric ran all the way from her lower face to the elbows on her arms, and down to her dark-grey shorts. She had the appropriate ninja kunai and shuriken holders attached, but also a wakizashi at her side. She had sandals as foot wear, and light bracers on both arms, with matching shin guards.

She was proportioned and tall for a woman, with well rounded limbs, and well rounded other parts. Jiraiya focused on those parts, which despite being enormous, were held by the tight fabric.

"I see you still don't wear a bra, Kaori-chan." Jiraiya said. He was starting to drool.

She crossed her arms over her chest and smiled; a smile that was more oriented with her eyes then her concealed mouth. "I see you've noticed."

"I wasn't supposed to?" Jiraiya's nose started to bleed as he inched closer. She looked unworried.

"Nah, you were. Like I say, if you've got it, flaunt it."

"You can flaunt it all day!" Jiraiya's face was now almost a foot away from his object of interest. Kaori uncrossed her arms and put her hand on the Jiraiya's chin and pushed his view up so it was looking her in the face.

"My eyes are up there."

Jiraiya frowned, and stopped bending over. He whipped the amount of drool and nosebleed with the sleeve of his shirt and cleared his voice.

"Say, this place is sort of stuffy," They were on top of the Hokage tower with no one around, "what do you say we go someplace else and talk?" Jiraiya gave her a wink. She rolled her eyes.

"Sure."

They both made quick hand seals and body flickered away.

Moments Jiraiya was sitting on the edge of the rock head of the Shodai Hokage _(Founding/First Hokage)_, while Kaori stood behind him.

"So, a whole year huh?" He spoke while both of their hair blew in the wind. "I can't believe it has really been that long."

She sat down beside him. "Well, the team and I had that year long mission. We just got back three days ago."

"Going to tell me what had the four of you away from home for a _year_? You said you didn't have time to talk about it back then."

"Well, as much as I would absolutely love to," she spoke sarcastically, "Hokage-sama has it all confidential."

"Spy work?" He questioned.

"Why'd you guess that?" She turned to face him to see his face serious.

"Because you left your forehead protector and vest with me before you left. You said it yourself, if you got it, flaunt it. Since you didn't have it, you couldn't show it off, even if it was unintentional. Now, what would make someone like you not want people to know they're a Konoha ninja? Sounds like something sneaky to me." He smiled.

She sighed. "Guess I can't deny that sort of logic."

"Looks like our peace with the other hidden villages isn't going to last, is it?"

She shrugged. "If we've been sending out people on infiltration missions like me and my team was, then it's sure that other countries have been doing it too. Something is going down, but I guess only the Kages would really know anything."

"_And _ANBU." He added, with a slight smirk.

"Hey, I'm ex-ANBU." She defended.

"Your on temporary leave, as soon as your team doesn't need you anymore, your back in their ranks, right?"

She nodded once more. "Yeah, and it's about came with me, Jiraiya-chan! I've waited years for you to join up. You know that you'd get in without a problem. Hell, if any ninja in this village, they'd welcome you with open arms."

This time Jiraiya shrugged. "Ehh, maybe. So how's the team? You never got to tell me much about them."

"_Changing the subject, very shrewd Jiraiya-chan."_ Kaori thought.

At this she groaned. "They're nice kids, I'll give them that before I start complaining. For starters, I have an Uchiha _and _a Hyuga, both of which constantly get into cat-fights about which clan is better and whether or not Byakugan is superior to Sharingan."

Jiraiya's eyes widened. "You have two kids with Kekkei Genkai _(Bloodline Trait)_? Maybe Sarutobi-sensei gave them to you because he figured that you'd know how to teach kids with dojutsu."

"Me? Teach how to use dojutsu? I can barely use _my_ Sharingan, let alone teach _another_ how to use it."

"Say, you don't talk about your Sharingan much, why don't you use it?"

"Because—" she looked back off into the village from hers and Jiraiya's shared location. Whatever noise was going on down there was washed away in the wind. "—unlike most members of the Uchiha clan, I'm not naturally skilled with Sharingan. I didn't get to be a Jonin based on my Kekkei Genkai, I got here like any other ninja would.

Her hair flowed in the breeze and briefly tickled Jiraiya's cheek.

"Well I know that, but think how much stronger you could be if you _did_ utilize it? Not everyone is lucky enough to be born with a Kekkei Genkai like you."

Kaori gave him the same answer to his question that he gave to hers. "Ehh, maybe." She smiled and looked him in the eye while he did the same, and they both chuckled.

"So do you have all girls?" Jiraiya questioned.

"Nah, I have a boy, and he doesn't have a dojutsu either."

"One boy surrounded with two female peers? Wow, he's lucky." Jiraiya looked off into the sky. "I wonder what it would have been like if I had you as a team mate instead of Orochimaru…probably better." He laughed.

"That guy still creeps me out."

"Oro-chan? Yeah, he's like that at first, but eventually you get used to it. He has a good heart deep down. He went though a lot when he was young. But besides that, that boy you have must be really behind compared to the other two. I mean an Uchiha and a Hyuga? Kekkei Genkai aside, those are some kids are from prime clans."

She shook her head. "No, actually, he's stronger then either. Sometimes I think he may even be stronger then both of them combine."

Jiraiya's eyes grew wide once more. "He must be something else then. Did I tell you I got my Genin team just yesterday? All boys."

"Good. I'd hate to see what you'd do if you had gotten a girl on your team." She smirked.

Jiraiya grimaced. "I'm not a child molester…"

This got a laugh out of Kaori. "So what are they like, your team that is, Jiraiya-chan."

"Well, two of them are really quiet, Kat-chan and Mina-chan. Mina-chan was the middle of his class, but he's really smart. Kat-chan is the son of Otonashi Yuri, which should be enough to let you know about him." Kaori gave a slight nod. "The last one I have is Ryo-chan. He's from the Rokku clan, and seems sort of lazy. I think he might catch up to Mina-chan and Kat-chan though; he's really determined."

"Sounds like quiet the bunch, where are they now?"

"I'd really like to know that myself…" Jiraiya rubbed his chin in thought.

**-Minato-**

The blonde boy was walking the streets of Konoha with a dented forehead protector in one hand, and a camera in the other. He had a huge black eye and several lumps on the head. He didn't remember what had recently conspired very well, only he said something stupid to Sora, and she used his own forehead protector to beat him into submission. It still hurt.

The Hokage who saw young Minato's damaged forehead protector approached him.

"Oy, Minato-san!"

Minato smiled and bowed before the Hokage. "Konichiwa, Hokage-sama." Minato spoke.

"Beautiful day isn't it? I see your forehead protector is dented, what happened?" The Hokage examined his black eye as well.

"Well, you see, my sensei asked me to do something…and when I consulted with my neechan about it, she wasn't very pleased."

Sarutobi, knowing this was his former student's student, got interested. "Why don't we take a walk then, if you're not busy." Minato nodded, and the two started towards the Hokage tower whilst making small talk.

"So, what exactly did your sensei ask you to do?" The Hokage asked as they entered his office. Minato had been enjoying the talk with the village head.

"Sensei asked that I go and take five pictures of pretty naked women with this camera."

Sarutobi's mouth dropped.

"It's so we can become Genin." Minato continued.

The Hokage sighed.

"_Jiraiya, what will I ever do with you? It isn't like I can say your test was 'too perverted' or anything, but why didn't I think of that?!"_

"Your sensei, Minato-san, really isn't going to budge on this, is he?"

Minato thought about it for a moment and then shook his head no.

"Do you want to become a ninja that badly?" The Hokage asked again.

"You know an alternative?!"

"No…but I know how you can pass that test…" The Hokage spoke slowly. He wanted to see Jiraiya teach these children, and the kids themselves all had great amounts of potential. But…Minato was so young.

Minato was quiet, but finally nodded. "I'll do whatever it takes to become a ninja…I just didn't really understand what sensei wanted us to do, or how he wanted us to do it."

"Jiraiya," The Hokage spoke, "Gave you this test for several reasons. He wanted to you use stealth to take those pictures without the women noticing. This is quite a task, as most women are highly on their guard while bathing, at least the ones I've seen." Sarutobi lit his pipe and took a puff.

"_How does he know this again?" Minato wondered_

"In addition, having a limited number of pictures on a camera teaches you how to ration what you have, which can be useful when it comes to supplies on the field. But he predicted that you would all fail on your first attempts, and being severely beaten, like you were, Minato-san. This is stamina building, to see if you have the motivation required to continue. Finally…"

The Hokage was silent for a moment.

Minato listened carefully, waiting in anticipation.

"…he wanted those wonderful nude pictures."

Minato sweat dropped.

"The only ones who could ever pass this test is a true pervert, like Jiraiya himself." Sarutobi left out the fact that he was a super pervert himself. There was no need to let anyone else know that.

"But," Minato started, "I'm not a pervert."

The Hokage got a mischievous look in his eye. "We can change that." He reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out a book, which he promptly set on the table. The book was old, yet thick. It had a brown cover that said 'Cooking for Ninjas.' Minato looked at the Hokage in confusion.

"Don't let the title mislead you, it is only to keep people away. In truth, this book is the pinnacle of perverted knowledge. Anyone who reads this book," The Hokage spoke in a serious and intimidating tone, "will become a super-pervert!"

Minato looked scared. "Wh-who…who wrote something like that!"

The Hokage sighed. "No one knows. When the Shodai and Nidaime Hokage found the area which is now Konoha, the book was contained within an old abandoned house. It's actually because of that house that they decided to stop and make Konoha here. The two of them became absorbed in the book, and it has been passed down through the generations since."

Minato was giving the Hokage a glare. "That isn't true…"

"It is! It's 100 percent true!" Sarutobi defended.

Minato sighed, and the old man took another puff of his pipe.

"It doesn't matter…I'll do whatever it takes to become a ninja!" Minato reached for the book, but Sarutobi swatted his hand out of the way.

"I'm warning you, young Minato-san! Anyone who reads this book, can _never_ go back; they will be a pervert for life!"

Minato and the Hokage's gaze met and the air grew tense. Minato put his hand on the book, and pulled it over to him.

"I choose the path of a ninja!" Minato said as he threw the cover open.

His twelve year old brain really didn't know what it had just gotten itself into.

**-Roof of Hokage Tower, 3 hours later-**

All four men found themselves returning to the location around the same time. Jiraiya seemed somewhat happier then he was when he left. Minato looked…extremely happier from when he had left. Ryokumaru seemed about normal, which was still pretty high on the happy scale. Katsu on the other hand looked disturbed.

"Test is over!" Jiraiya announced as they all turned in their five pictures, or six in Minato's case. Minato and Ryokumaru took seats on the bench. Katsu began shaking in the corner.

Jiraiya started flipping through Ryokumaru's pictures. "Yeah, this is that junk 'creative photography' picture…what else is here—holy! RYO-CHAN! How did you _get _these angles?!" Jiraiya's nose started to bleed. Ryokumaru had a huge grin on his face.

"It wasn't easy, but after I henged the camera into soap and slipped it into select women's bathrooms…" He went on to reveal his details with Jiraiya. He may have had only four pictures, but Jiraiya seemed to think they were top notch.

He moved on to Katsu's. His eyes went big. "Kat-chan! What, you, did you? How did you? I can't believe, you really…?"

Jiraiya's stutter when on a little longer, until drops of blood from his nose hit the floor. "It's almost as if…this lady posed these pictures for you personally! Did you get her to take them herself? AMAZING!" Jiraiya looked closer at the pictures. "Hey, she looks a little bit like you, are you two related, Kat-chan?" Jiraiya saw his student wasn't on the bench, and instead still shivering on the ground. "Kat…chan?"

Katsu himself was having a mental break down from _what_ he had to do to get those pictures.

"Well…moving on, lets see what Mina-chan has for me…" Jiraiya flipped to Minato's six pictures, and quickly passed by the one Jiraiya took himself.

Jiraiya dropped the pictures on the ground. His jaw almost hit the floor. His eyes slowly looked up to meet Minato's.

"_That…that…that little boy, with his tiny innocent smile…is…is a miracle worker!"_

"How did GET pictures of Tsunade-chan like this!!"

Jiraiya quickly scooped up his new 'collection' and went over and grabbed all three boys in a bear huge.

"You boys all pass! It worked! The test worked! I've truly transformed you all into ninja!!"

Ryokumaru gasped for air. "Actually, Jiraiya-sensei, you made us into perverts."

"Except for Katsu-kun," Minato inserted, "I think you made him crazy…"

Katsu let out some sort of twisted groan.

Jiraiya released them and let them drop, and leap backward into another one of his over climactic poses.

"From now on, we will be known as team…TEAM HENTAI!" Jiraiya shouted, maybe too loud.

"What?! I refuse to be called team hentai!" Ryokumaru complained.

"I dunno…it has a nice ring to it…"

"MINATO!" Ryokumaru now yelled at the blonde.

Katsu slowly stood, and everyone looked at him as he opened his mouth to say something.

"Team Ronin." Was all he said. They all raised an eyebrow.

"But…we're not wandering or masterless…" Ryokumaru was the first to state.

"Sure we are, just in a metaphorical sense" Katsu continued, "If you were going to use a name like 'Team Hentai' we can still get the same feeling with 'Team Ronin' but a little more discrete about it."

Minato and Jiraiya both nodded, seeming to think about it and accept it.

"That doesn't make any sense at all!" Ryokumaru shouted.

"It sounds a lot cooler then Team Hentai, doesn't it?" Katsu said with a smirk.

This time Ryokumaru thought about it and then nodded. Jiraiya leapt back for one more climactic pose.

"It's settled! From this day forward we are now Team Ronin!"

* * *

**-End Chapter Three-**

This chapter is somewhat silly and laid back, but it's supposed to be. If I get into thick story too early, it'll seem rushed, and if I had nothing but thick drama, it would be cheesy. Right now are their 'good old days' before things begin to change. I'm dying to write a killer scene, but for the time being, I need to completely establish characters and back stories. It'll probably last another chapter or two, but at the moment, no 'world shattering' events will occur.

Preview - Chapter Four: Team Ronin


	4. Team Ronin

**-Chapter Four: Team Ronin-**

"Bastard!!"

Ryokumaru hit the floor hard and spit out the blood that was in his mouth, before whipping the blood on the side of his lip with his hand. He looked fiercely up at the boys before him. There were three, and two were big, at least bigger then Ryokumaru was, with one a little bit more moderately built. He was the one who had just decked Ryokumaru.

"It isn't my fault that you didn't become Genin!!" Ryokumaru yelled. It was a little hard to see out of his left eye where he had been punched.

"Shut up dobe!! I'm 2nd out of 18!!"

"Yeah! We're 7th and 6th!!" shouted one of the other boys.

The first boy spoke again. "There is no way that we lost to someone like you, 18th out of 18!! The test had to have been ridged, or you did something dishonest to pass!"

"I already told you I passed on my own!!" Ryokumaru tried to stand again. The speaking boy gritted his teeth and kicked him in the side before he could accomplish this.

"My family needs the money! You come from a rich clan, you would never understand!" The boy's eyes started to tear. He moved in to attack the still prone Ryokumaru.

His fist was blocked. Standing in front of the boy was a blonde haired, blue eyed Genin. He quickly extended a kunai and pointed it at the forehead of the attacking boy.

"Minato…" He spoke, his eyes narrowing at the kunai pointed at him.

Ryokumaru looked up at his companion in awe.

"_Why is he here?"_ Was all he could think.

The two who had been watching now took steps forward at the blonde, but a ninja quickly appeared between them, grabbed both of their heads, and smashed them together. The boys dropped like rocks.

"What do you think your doing, Amida-kun." Minato spoke with a cold whisper. He removed the weapon pointed at the boy.

Amida looked behind him at both of his allies down, and saw the person responsible leaning against a wall.

"Katsu…" Was his next whisper.

"Please do not take this personally, Amida-kun, but we cannot tolerate our team mate being attacked as such." Minato carried on.

Amida saw that Minato had let his guard down, and Katsu was barely paying attention. He looked down, and whipped his eyes. "What do either of you know?!" With that he clenched his hand into a fist and shoved it at Minato.

The blonde's facial expression didn't change and he took a quick step back, grabbed the boy's arm at the elbow with one hand, and the wrist with the other. In one quick motion, he snapped the boy's arm, causing the elbow to bend in the wrong way. The boy's eyes shot open and he started to shout a cry of pain.

Wham.

Katsu was right behind him, and landed a chop to the boy's neck, making him drop unconscious.

"Minato-san, you really went over board." Katsu spoke, before looking over to the still shocked Ryokumaru. "Besides, we should let him fight his own fights."

Minato gave Ryokumaru a hand and helped him up. The boy had a black eye and other small cuts and bruises on him.

"I can't watch a team mate become injured without doing anything, Katsu-kun."

Ryokumaru didn't look very relieved, almost angry. "I didn't ask for your help Minato! Same goes for you Katsu! That boy didn't deserve that!!" Ryokumaru looked at the unconscious boy's broken arm. It would have high medical bills, and if what the boy said was true…

"Ryo-kun, you are becoming emotional over this. Yes, the boy did indeed have a Story, yet so does everyone else in the world. It was either his Story or yours," Minato's facial expression remained cold, "We're ninja, not idealists. Now let us go and find you some band-aids."

Minato began walking out of the ally way where all had conspired. Katsu followed closely behind him. Ryokumaru was left standing looking at the three unconscious boys.

"_Sure, they were blowing things out of proportions, but did Katsu and Minato really have to beat them up? And it isn't like my clan is that rich or anything…I know that I shouldn't have anything to do with it, yet I can't help but feel sorry for them."_

Ryokumaru turned around and decided to catch up with his team.

**-Ninja Academy, Two Hours Later-**

Jiraiya was sprawled out on the desk at the front of the classroom. Ryokumaru, Minato, and Katsu all had different seats in different parts of the almost empty room. The three were reading text books, bar a little boredom. It was, of course, the quietest time the group had had together yet.

Ryokumaru groaned, and let his head hit the table his book was on. He had several small bandages on him, with neatly applied ointment via help from Katsu and Minato.

Katsu looked somewhat uninterested, reading the book on his lap while leaning back in his chair. His katana, as always, was set nearby.

Minato seemed constant, a slight smile on his innocent face. He appeared to be vividly reading.

"Minato-san." Katsu called, not looking up from his book.

"Yes, Katsu-kun?" Minato followed suit.

"You're fed up with this, aren't you?" Katsu stated, seeing strait into Minato's emotions.

"Yes, Katsu-kun." Minato sighed.

"He's not the only one…" Ryokumaru piped.

Katsu put his book down and stood, facing the raised yet prone form of Jiraiya on the desk.

"Jiraiya-sensei, what we are studying is merely slightly more difficult then what we have already accomplished before becoming Genin." He made a gesture to his forehead protector, which all the men in the room religiously wore. "Shouldn't we be out training?"

Jiraiya sighed from his half-sleep.

"Studying is a very important part of being a ninja." He itched his nose and yawned. "You'll never get away from it, so you better get used to doing it."

Katsu crinkled his brow in a frustrated manor. "But this isn't helping us learn anything! This is only telling us how to fight, actually training is definitely superior."

Minato looked up. "I also agree with Katsu-kun."

"Yeah! This is completely boring! I wanna get to doin' a mission!!" Ryokumaru was quick to exclaim, looking about as annoyed as Katsu.

Jiraiya sighed and sat up, and faced his students. "Look, all things are best with moderation. Sure, training is useful, and we'll get to it, but for one hour a day, you are going to be studying. A ninja always has to review the basics. Besides, what good is training if you can't have some insight? If you all want to go outside and kick a damn log five-hundred times, go ahead, but it isn't going to make you a better ninja."

Katsu sighed and let his irritation fade. "I understand, Jiraiya-sensei." He sat back down and resumed his reading, along with Minato.

"But…what about a mission, Jiraiya?" Ryokumaru asked.

"Well, actually, I've already turned in our team folder, so we should already be in the system. I was planning on going down today. But, after you guys finish your hour of reading, I have some sort quizzes for you. Once _all_ of you pass them, we can move to the next part of our morning activities."

"Quizzes! What for!"

"To make sure you actually learned something, Ryo-chan, and didn't just pretend to read or sleep the whole time."

Ryokumaru sweat dropped.

"Look, let's get this strait, right now you are all my students, and this is the training routine that we'll do _everyday_ so long as possible. Study in the morning for an hour, go out on the field and test out what you've learned for another hour, and then we're going to exercise for one final hour."

"Exercise!" Ryokumaru burst, again.

"Yeah Ryo-chan, keeping your body healthy is important for being a ninja. But anyways, _after_ those three hours are over, we'll go and do a mission. Now, I haven't done a D-Rank mission in a while, but since we'll be done with our training routine at 10:00, we should finish our mission around 4:00 to 5:00."

"D-Rank mission are that short...?" Ryokumaru stated the obvious, again.

"And then after that you all can pretty much hang out for the rest of the day." Jiraiya shrugged.

"Sora-neechan likes me home at 8:00." Minato stated.

"Yeah, kaasan likes me home the same time." Ryokumaru nodded.

Jiraiya laid himself back down. "Same for you, Kat-chan?"

Katsu didn't say anything.

"Right, well, get back to work, you all get your test in ten minutes, so I hope your well read up."

Katsu put his book down. "Finished."

Minato was still smiling. "I'm on my fourth time around."

Jiraiya turned his head to Ryokumaru who looked frantic.

"Okay so I'm just starting!!"

The other three burst out laughing.

**-Training Grounds, 45 Minutes Later-**

Jiraiya was standing before his three pupils. Katsu had this sword strapped to his back, as always, and stood with his arms crossed. Minato had his eternal smile, and Ryokumaru just looked bored.

"Okay, due to the fact that _somebody_ failed the test three times, we're not going to have time to do much today. I figure that a quickie analysis of your skills should be enough."

Ryokumaru grumbled at the mention of someone failing the test so many times.

"So, just for starters, I've read your reports from the academy, so I think I have an okay understanding of how good you all are. But, I'm curious as to a few things. For starters, Chakra and Stamina capacity."

Minato and Katsu followed along easy, Ryokumaru, not so much.

"Well, how about a Bushin no Jutsu? That's pretty simple, all of you just release a bit of chakra and let me see how it goes."

All boys nodded, and made hand seals, Katsu's exceptionally fast, Minato's exceptionally slow, and Ryokumaru's exceptionally bad.

"**BUSHIN NO JUTSU!"** All boys shouted, at after a large puff of smoke passed, Jiraiya made his observations.

Katsu had five copies of himself. Ryokumaru on the other hand, had only one, which Jiraiya had a hard time noticing due Minato's crowd of ten. Katsu and clones all looked slightly surprised at Minato's group, while both Ryokumarus looked utterly shocked.

A moment later all three released the jutsu and the clones faded.

"Minato! How did you make so many clones!" Ryokumaru was the first to notice.

"It's because," Jiraiya went on to answer for him, "He has excellent chakra control."

Ryokumaru looked clueless. "Chakra…control…?"

Katsu sighed along with Jiraiya. "Oh boy, you really just didn't listen to the basics did you, Ryo-chan? Kat-chan, explain it to him, will you?"

Minato looked somewhat pleased with himself, but stayed quiet.

Katsu spoke the bewildered Ryokumaru. "It's simple. Chakra is the Spirit-Force mixed inside of your body, which is obvious. Creating it is the key. Chakra is made from Stamina, which is your Life-Force. When releasing the seals of a jutsu, you transform your Life-Force, Stamina, into Spirit-Force, or Chakra. Then, after the Chakra is acquired, you release it into the effect of the jutsu." Katsu explained this carefully.

"_Sure he may be a complete idiot, but if we're ever going to do anything about that we need to help him learn. We are stuck with him on our team after all. I'm sure Minato-san's thinking the same thing."_ Katsu thought to himself, taking a brief glance at Minato.

"So, Minato used more Chakra then me and Katsu." Ryokumaru declared, targeted to Jiraiya, who shook his head.

"No, the three of you used the same amount of Chakra." Ryokumaru looked utterly confused. "Let me explain this one. The three of you have some differences in how you use Chakra. As an example, when Mina-chan mixes his Stamina into Chakra, he transfers the exact amount he needs, and after such, completely uses the Chakra in his system on the spot, therefore none is wasted."

Ryokumaru nodded.

"Kat-chan here actually transfers too much Life-Force into Spirit-Force when making Chakra, but he makes up for it by using the exact amount. You on the other hand, Ryo-chan, waste _way_ too much Stamina and don't use your Chakra effectively. Simply put, you waste most of the Chakra you create."

"What? Why should that matter? I'd still have extra Chakra in my system, so I could use it for later!"

Katsu actually sighed at this, Minato still patient through the conversation.

"Ryo-chan, if that were true, then hand seals would be worthless. Any ninja could just transfer however much Stamina into Chakra before a battle or anything and just use their 'reserves.' It doesn't work like this. The difference is Spirit-Force decreases at such a rapid rate, that it'll disappear almost instantly. When using a jutsu, the Chakra that you create is used on the spot, and if isn't used, it dissipates."

Ryokumaru was beginning to understand now.

Jiraiya continued. "Humans naturally regain Stamina by eating, breathing, and resting. Chakra however must be made from Stamina because humans don't naturally make it—"

Minato perked his head up and seemed to be in thought, but didn't interrupt.

"—which is what makes us ninja special, being able to create Chakra from our Stamina. Normal people cannot do this."

There was a pause. "I think I understand now. Thank you, Jiraiya…Jiraiya-sensei." Ryokumaru turned his head to face the dark haired boy before he finished. "Thank you, Katsu."

"If you really wanted to thank me, you'd stop referring to me so familiarly." Katsu responded coldly.

Ryokumaru gave a large smile. "Why would I do something so silly like that? We're a team! We're almost like family, and we'll be together for the rest of our careers!"

"Actually, he's somewhat right," Jiraiya added, "I had about the same team for almost all of my missions."

"Whatever…" was Katsu's quiet response. This got a giggle out of Minato, which in turn received a sharp look from Katsu.

Jiraiya guided them back on subject. "Minato, you have great Chakra control. However, in order to be able to focus as such, it takes you longer to do the hand seals. I want you to practice doing them faster, like Kat-chan, even if it wastes more Stamina then it has to. Sometimes speed is more important, and at your level, I think it's optimal."

"But what if I have enough time to use my Chakra control to its extent, such as a target unaware of my position." Minato questioned.

"Then by all means, do so. Just let me know when you see one of those." Jiraiya smirked, and Minato stuck his tongue out.

Ryokumaru laughed, and even Katsu chuckled.

Katsu was the first to put everyone back on track. "So, is there anything else you were wondering, Jiraiya-sensei?"

Jiraiya thought about it for a moment, before nodding, and pulling out what looked like three small pieces of paper.

"This is something you all may not be familiar with. A ninja's Chakra has something called a nature, which is the element it matches with. Most ninja don't show any elemental advantages until Chuunin level, and some don't ever show them at all."

Jiraiya handed one piece of paper to all of them.

"_Ha! This is where I'm ahead of those two! All people of the Rokku clan have a strong Earth nature affinity! I bet neither of them even have one yet!"_ Ryokumaru thought to himself as he took the paper.

"There are five primary natures which one can have: Fire, Lightning, Wind, Water, and Earth. Those pieces of paper are made from old trees created by the Shodai Hokage, so they will easily react to the slightest bit of Chakra. Simply channel a small amount of Chakra into them."

All three students nodded, and did so.

Ryokumaru smirked as his paper turned into a fine dust in the palm of his head.

"_Yeah, I'd like to see what those two are—"_

A small, brief yet quick breeze erupted from Katsu's hand and blew the dust from Ryokumaru's hand. The tan boy looked over to see that the purple garbed boy had broken his piece of paper strait in half, which he promptly tossed the remains over his shoulder.

Everyone turned to see the last boy release his Chakra nature.

The card he held instantly crumpled.

"_So…they all have natures too…figures I wouldn't be ahead."_ Ryokumaru sighed.

"What does this mean, Jiraiya-sensei?"

"It means, Mina-chan, that you have Lightning nature Chakra, which is quite rare in a Genin. Actually, all of you have a Chakra nature, I'm quite impressed." Jiraiya smiled.

He put his hand on Katsu's head. "Kat-cha, you have Wind nature Chakra." He moved over before putting his hand on Ryokumaru's head. "And you, Ryo-cha, have Earth nature Chakra, as you probably knew." He removed his hand and stepped back.

"So…I'm Wind…" Katsu said out loud, seeming to ponder this, maybe slightly surprised.

"And I'm Lightning." Minato concluded.

Jiraiya continued his lecture, "Every Chakra nature has another nature they are strong against, and a nature they are weak against. Water is strong against Fire, which is strong against Wind, that is strong against Thunder, that in turn is strong against Earth, which is finally effective against Water." He looked all of his students in the eyes.

"Basically, Ryo-chan, Mina-chan has the better of your Chakra natures, and Mina-chan, Kat-chan is practically your worst enemy. Kat-chan, no one here has a nature that can defeat yours."

Katsu smiled at this, seeming to be amused by his nature. Ryokumaru on the other hand looked somewhat depressed that he was on the 'bottom' of the totem again.

"Jiraiya-sensei, what are your Chakra natures? You're a Jonin, surely you have more then one." Minato asked sincerely.

"It's a secret!" Minato gave a huge grin, causing Minato to actually frown, and Katsu to roll his eyes.

"Now, I have one last thing to say to you all," Jiraiya continued. "Jutsu are very dangerous."

"Of course they are, Jiraiya-sensei! There are many powerful jutsu out there and people who have affinities effective against yours, you have to be careful." Ryokumaru finished saying for Jiraiya, who shook his head.

"Actually that isn't what I was going to say. The reason you have to be careful of jutsu is…because even your own most power techniques can kill you." The students looked slightly confused.

"Making and using Chakra drains your Stamina, so you're Life-Force. This will eventually recover, but it won't in the middle of a battle. The more you use a jutsu, the less you'll be able to fight, and the more of an advantage your enemy will have on you. Only use techniques when you need to, and carefully plan them out. The most important way to make sure that you stay alive in combat however is—"

He paused for effect, his tone serious.

"—to make sure you have friends to watch your back." He ended his speech in a smile, which affected the rest of his students. "Now I think we'll skip exercise and a mission for today, so why don't you all go home and rest, tomorrow will be tough."

After dismissing his students, Katsu and Ryokumaru promptly left. Minato, however, stayed behind.

"Jiraiya-sensei, I have a question." He asked.

"Sure thing, what's up, Mina-chan?"

"Well, you said that humans didn't normally make Spirit-Force…well, what about something that could? What sort of creature would that be?"

Jiraiya paused, astonished at Minato's statement, but mostly his inability to answer the question. "Well, I really don't know, Mina-chan, but if such a creature _did_ exist, they'd be one HELL of a demon!"

* * *

**-End Chapter Four-**

Thank you for reading! Please comment and review.

Preview - Chapter Five: A Clash of Stories


	5. A Clash of Stories

**-Chapter Five: A Clash of Stories-**

"Ryo-kun! Katsu-kun!" Minato called as he jogged to catch up to his two leaving team mates.

"What took you so long Minato?" Ryokumaru replied. Katsu raised an eyebrow.

"I had a question to ask Jiraiya-sensei. Anyways, where are you two going? We have the rest of the day off."

Katsu shrugged, and Ryokumaru answered. "Uhh, no where in particular, we were just leaving."

Minato nodded. "Well, since we have the rest of the day off, why don't we…go and do something fun?" Minato got a…odd look in his eye.

Katsu raised an eyebrow again. "What do you have in mind, Minato-san?"

Minato came in close to whisper in Katsu's ear, and Ryokumaru bent over to listen in.

"WHAT! Why would we do something like that Minato!" Ryokumaru yelled as Katsu's eyes shot wide open. Minato had a devilish smile.

"Come on, it'll be fun! Besides, I doubt either of you have anything better to do."

Ryokumaru was tempted.

"We should be out training instead of doing…dishonest things like that." Katsu responded. In actuality, he was still scarred from what he had to do only a few days ago.

"No, I think Minato is on to something here…" Ryokumaru started to gain the same devilish smile.

Katsu narrowed his eyes. "I don't think I want to—"

"—Katsu-kun! You're coming with us!"

"YOSH!" Ryokumaru said while throwing his fist up in the air, "To the hot springs it is!!"

­**-Konoha Hot Springs-**

Minato spoke quietly into his microphone to his two team mates. He was prone on the roof of a near by building.

"Ryo-kun, what's your position? over"

"I'm currently inside the facility at the men's locker room, over." Minato heard the slightly static response shortly after his own transmission. The three of them had turned finding the best way to sneak into the ladies baths unseen into a mission of sorts.

"Good, what about you, Katsu-kun? over"

"I really don't think we should be doing—"

"KATSU-KUN! You're part of this operation already, and until we complete the mission, I don't want to hear another complaint out of you! over"

Katsu's sight could be heard on the other line. "Yeah, whatever. Anyways, I'm behind the facility."

Ryokumaru butted into the conversation. "You forgot to say 'over' Katsu. over"

"Is it…really necessary?"

"IT'S COMPLETELY NECESSARY!! over" Ryokumaru yelled, hurting both Katsu's and Minato's ears.

"Ryo-kun, you must be quiet or you'll compromise the mission, over"

Ryokumaru grumbled.

"Anyways," Minato continued, "I think the best way to the target will be to break into the steam ventilation and make our way over our destination."

"The steam ventilation!" Katsu exclaimed, "Do you know how hot it'll be in there?!"

"Katsu-kun, I thought I told you I didn't want to hear anymore complaints, over"

This time Katsu grumbled.

"We'll meet on the roof of the facility in five minutes after finding the best course of reaching the location unseen. Move out! over"

All three boys took careful observations of their surroundings, and made mad dashes to the roof. After checking to make sure they weren't followed or noticed, they put away their microphones and took a good look at the large ventilation shaft that had steam pouring out of it.

Minato proceeded to bark orders. "Ryo-kun! Remove the top of the ventilation, and follow me in. Katsu-kun, make sure no one follows behind us and replace the top fixture quickly before following us in."

Both boys nodded and did as they were told. Minato smoothly leapt inside, followed by Ryokumaru, and then Katsu as he made sure to replace the top of the vertical shaft as he descended.

All three boys were on their hands and knees inside of the metal shaft, and could barely see through the mist. They were all immensely sweating due to the high temperature.

"Minato…I don't think…this is a…good idea anymore…"

"Shhh! Ryo-kun, you'll jeopardize the mission if you say things that loudly. Sound travels in these shafts. Now let us proceed with caution."

The boys crawled their way, passing several vents, but all either leading to men's locker rooms or the men's bath. Finally, they neared their target: the woman's baths.

Minato, who was in the lead, bumped into something in front of him in the dark, misty corridor.

"What in the world is…?"

"Mina-chan? Kat-chan? Ryo-chan? What are…all of you doing here?"

"JIRAIYA-SENSEI!!" All three boys yelled at the same time. As they did so, the said instructor did a three-sixty inside the shaft to try and tackle all of the boys to shut them up.

"SHHHHHH!! If you're too loud they'll hear us!"

The students nodded, but everyone suddenly noticed that they were all cramped in one spot. The bars that kept the ventilation held up started to squeak.

Katsu made the revelation. "Uh-oh."

The ventilation split, causing the four to slide out, yet splashed safely in the water below. Except Ryokumaru, who hit his head on the hard floor, and Minato, who though hit the water, landed on something else.

Minato slowly picked himself up, and he felt on of his hands on something…soft, and wet, yet sleek and—

"MINATO!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!!"

Minato looked up from what his hand was on to see himself on top of the prone form of someone he wasn't expecting. His voice was filled with fear, and he stuttered as he talked.

"So—Sora-neechan…wha—what are you…doing here?" He looked down to see his hand was still giving her a squeeze. He quickly jumped back, waist deep in water.

Around him some women started screaming and covering themselves with nearby towels, yelling things like 'perverts!' or 'peeping toms!'

Jiraiya looked around and realized his cover had been blown.

"**Nozokimi no Jutsu!" **_(Peeping Tom Technique)_

Jiraiya quickly made the hand seals and seemed to disappear without a trace. Ryokumaru slowly got up.

"Don't worry everyone…I only landed on my head…"

Wham.

Minato took the punch to the face and was sent flying to the far wall. As he got up, he saw Sora in a towel, along with several other women. His life was also flashing before his eyes.

"RETREAT!" Minato broke out in a full sprint, passing Ryokumaru, who saw the mob Minato was escaping from, and started running as well.

By the time the two had reached the exit, they were barely alive. Minato and Ryokumaru were covered with bruises. Minato also had over eighty slap-mark-hand-prints on his body. Ryokumaru was bleeding from the head. At the exit, the two limping boys saw Jiraiya standing there without a scratch on him, and not even wet.

"Tsk, tsk, you two still have a lot to learn." Was all he said before he walked away.

Minato and Ryokumaru looked at each other and thought that they might have forgotten something.

"KATSU!" Ryokumaru exclaimed, and Minato's black eyes went big.

"We need to go back for him!" Ryokumaru turned around but Minato put a hand on his shoulder to stop him, shaking his head no. Ryokumaru protested.

"A ninja never leaves a man behind!"

"I think it's too late for Katsu-kun…"

Ryokumaru and Minato both sunk their heads at the loss of their team mate.

Just as they started to walk away they saw a person with purple clothes and a katana on their back leave the hot springs. Their clothes were wet, but the person was uninjured. Whoever it was, they had long, flowing black hair, and a young, cute face.

Minato and Ryokumaru both wrinkled their eyebrows.

"Kat…su…kun…?"

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" Ryokumaru tackled him with joy. The dark-eyed boy pushed him off.

"This is your fault, Minato-san!!"

"How did you make it out without being hurt!?" Was all Minato could say, a look of astonishment still stuck to his face.

"What? Oh that, that was easy. I look enough like a girl with my hair down, that they didn't notice me while I made my escape." Katsu shrugged. Ryokumaru looked shocked. Minato looked shocked at first too, but then that shock became a devilish look.

"Whatever it is you are planning, Minato-san, I'M NOT GOING TO DO IT!!" Katsu yelled.

**-Hokage Tower, the Next Day-**

Team Ronin was waiting in the center room of the Hokage Tower, where missions are assigned. Jiraiya looked as he normally did, as did Katsu. Minato and Ryokumaru however had dozens of small bandages on them. Another team was currently being assigned a mission, so they were talking while they waited.

"…and after she was done with her lecture, Sora-neechan sent me to bed without any dinner."

"Wow, I can't believe you got off with only having to clean the house and miss dinner, Minato."

Minato sighed. "Yeah, for now, but I have a feeling that there will be more to it then that later."

"Hey, it's our turn." Katsu pointed out, and Team Ronin approached the two Chuunin who were handling the paper work. Jiraiya told them the name of their team, and they quickly looked up the file.

"Wow, you guys are a blank sheet, zero missions. Oh wait, there's a note here. It says that the Hokage-sama has a special mission for you…and to report to his office." The Chuunin looked up at the curious team. "That's all."

Team Ronin nodded, and started for the Hokage's office after the brief conversation.

As they entered the room, Jiraiya was the first to greet his old master. "Oy, Hokage-sama!"

The other students entered, and Katsu and Minato bowed, followed by Ryokumaru who caught on to their etiquette.

Sarutobi chuckled and took a puff of his pipe. "Alright, why don't you three have a seat." He motioned to the chairs in front of his desk, and they did so. Jiraiya stood behind them with a smile.

"So, Team Ronin's first mission? I bet you're all excited."

"Hell yes!" Ryokumaru said before thinking. "I mean…uhh…yes, Hokage-sama." Everyone else in the room laughed, including the Hokage.

"Well, I have a Special D-Rank mission for all of you. The client is…"

Sarutobi took another puff. The three students watched in anticipation.

"…myself."

They all sweat dropped.

"What's the layouts, Sarutobi-sensei?" Jiraiya asked, and all three of his students looked up at him bewildered. Jiraiya grinned. "What? Before he was Hokage, he was my sensei. Surprised?"

Obviously all three of them were, because their jaws almost hit the ground. Jiraiya and Sarutobi had another good laugh at this.

"Well, Jiraiya, my son Shiro wants to go visit his mother and his new brother. As you know, they live outside of Konoha, and I don't have the time to leave the village to take him. Your mission, Team Ronin, is to escort my son Shiro to his mother's house to let him spend the day there, and then bring him back home that night. The mission will begin tomorrow, and I want you to meet Shiro at my house at 7:00. Team Ronin, you're dismissed." The Hokage gave them a smile as they all left.

The group walked down to the lobby, and just before they left, Jiraiya stopped them.

"Hey, all of you, I have something to say." The boys stopped and waited for Jiraiya to continue. "The first thing is, I have something else I have to do tomorrow, so I won't be able to be with you on the mission. However, you're all highly capable and this mission is a piece of cake." He gave a thumbs up to reinforce this statement.

"The second thing is, when you all go home, I want you to do something. Find a picture. Whatever picture it is, make sure it's special. One you have it, don't show it to anyone, not even me. Take that picture, and fold it up, and slip it in between your forehead protector and the fabric it's bonded to." He made gestures at his forehead protector while saying this.

"These pictures…the images preserved on them will be the reasons that we fight as ninjas, the reasons that we grow stronger everyday, and the reasons that we keep on going. Make sure they're special. That's all." Jiraiya smiled, which his students eventually returned him with, showing him that they understood. They went their separate ways after that.

**-Jiraiya-**

The white haired Jonin closed the door to the house behind him. He walked into the kitchen while dropping his ninja gear off on the table, and started boiling up some water to make some quick ramen. He leaned against the counter.

"_His house…"_

Jiraiya slipped his forehead protector off and stared at it a long time. It had dozens of scratches and small indentations on it, worn from years of battle. The Konoha symbol was as strong as ever still. Jiraiya polished his protector, but unlike some other ninja, he never had it cleaned. He left all of the damages over the years on it, as a reminder of the things he went through.

"_My house."_

The young man pushed out a folded piece of paper that was inside his forehead protector. It was bent around the edges and had old creases at the folds. He opened it still, and gazed at the picture inside of it. Jiraiya smiled; a warm feeling flooding his heart.

As he heard a nock at the door he left the water to boil as he opened the door. He saw her standing there. Uchiha Kaori stood there, showing Jiraiya a smile with her eyes.

Jiraiya noticed that he was still holding the picture and quickly hid it behind his back.

"_Our house…"_

"Kaori-chan? What brings you by?" He started to say, but she just walked inside right past him. He closed the door and shoved the picture into his back pocket.

"Don't you remember? We talked about it the other day. I need to pick up my forehead protector and vest." She entered the kitchen and dropped her wakizashi and the rest of her ninja gear on the table next to Jiraiya's, then took a seat.

Jiraiya tossed his instant ramen noodles into the now boiling water and started to stab at them with a fork. "Yeah, I have them around here somewhere. So, why didn't you just come in? You have a key."

Kaori shrugged. "I figured that you'd be home and that it'd be rude to just barge in."

"You always used to." Jiraiya stuck his tongue out at her.

She rolled her eyes. "It's different now that he's not here…"

Jiraiya had successfully broken up his noodles and left them to simmer while he took a seat next to Kaori at the table. He took a long look at the wakizashi she had put down. It was a white stone handle, with a pommel in the shape of a tiger at the end, something unusual for a wakizashi. However, this wasn't a usual wakizashi, as it was necessary for it to have a light counterbalance. The small weapon's saya wasn't any less decorated, it being a matching white stone to the handle, with similar designs. Despite the fact that the weapon might seem heavier then a wakizashi should be, Jiraiya knew that this wasn't the case. The blade of the sword was very special.

"You still have that old thing?" Jiraiya noted when he realized she knew he was examining it.

"What do you mean? That's the sword I used in ANBU. It hasn't been in action since I left, if that's what you're asking."

"No, I mean…why haven't you given it back to me yet?"

Kaori raised an eyebrow. "Because you _gave_ it too me."

Jiraiya sighed. "You know just as well as I do that I _meant_ to say I was _lending_ it to you. It was necessary at the time."

"That's just bad for you, isn't it, because I happen to like it, and I'm going to keep it. Now, lets go and get my things." She spoke in a cocky tone as she stood. Jiraiya sighed and lead her upstairs.

"You know sometimes you can just be too stubborn for your own good." Jiraiya commented as he opened the door to his room. It was pretty simple, as he didn't spend much time in it. Kaori wandered over to his desk and examined items on it.

"Yeah, and you wouldn't have me any other way." She remarked back, causing Jiraiya to chuckle. He opened a drawer and removed the items inside. One of them was a Jonin vest, but dark grey in color instead of the usual, and the other was a traditional Konoha forehead protector, with minor damage to it excluding a small diagonal slash mark on the side, luckily not piercing the Konoha emblem. Jiraiya moved to hand them both to her, when he saw what she was looking at.

She turned, holding it in her hand. It was a somewhat old paper, a certificate to be exact.

"Hey!" Jiraiya fumbled with the vest and protector as he tried to snatch the picture away from her. Kaori was easily faster and pulled it away.

"I can't believe you still have this!?" She said, almost giggling, very un-Uchiha like.

"Give that back!" He said, looking awfully grumpy over it.

"Aww, does Jiraiya-chan want his marriage certificate back?" She teased him.

"Stop that, you know that it was only for the mission! It doesn't mean anything!" He said, finally snatching it away from her.

"Oh?" Kaori raised an eyebrow, "then what are you doing with it on the top of your desk?" She did a smile that was mostly visible with her eyes, due to her mask interference.

Jiraiya blushed. "It's because—I mean I was going to—It's only for—" He watched as Kaori was practically in tears laughing at him tripping over his own words. "I was just going through old things and happened to find it, that's all." He finally put it back down on the desk, and made sure to cover it with other papers.

"Uh huh, sure you were."

Jiraiya flopped down on his bed and stared at the ceiling, resting his hands behind his head. "Why do you always have to bug me, Kaori-chan?"

She walked over and sat next to his prone from, turning to make eye contact with him.

"Because, I'm trying to cheer you up."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think that I _need_ to be cheered up?"

"Because something's up." She gazed longer into his dark eyes, and leaned against his chest, something that surprised Jiraiya. "You're looking me in the eyes, that means there must be something on your chest, to keep you from drooling over mine." She gave him what they both understood was a smirk.

"You know, this physical contact is very provoking, Kaori-chan." Jiraiya spoke nonchalantly.

She raised an eyebrow "You know very well what would happen if you tried to grab my ass."

"You mean to say, if I tried to grab your ass _again_." The two of them broke into full laugher. The comment was funny, but it more so reminded them of the old days.

She stood up while Jiraiya stayed laying on the bed, and walked over to a table with a large scroll spread out on it. "What's this?"

Jiraiya took a few seconds to respond. "Summoning Contract, with Toads."

"That? I thought your father left that to you years ago?"

Jiraiya nodded before sitting up on his bed. "He did, I just now started to practice with it. I can only summon small frogs so far, but its progress."

There was a pause. Kaori watched Jiraiya's sad eyes. He normally wasn't like this.

"_It's his father…that's still hurting him. I don't blame him, he had to watch his father die a horrible death, but even he has to know that he can't mourn forever. That isn't what his father would have wanted…"_

"Hey! Jiraiya, you never told me what you were going to do about ANBU!" Kaori made an attempt to snap him out of his blue-moment.

He rolled his head to look at her. "Shouldn't you worry about getting back into ANBU yourself first? Doesn't that mean all your Genin have to become Chuunin?"

"Here's the thing about that, my team probably has the strength and skills to become Chuunin already, and easily the mission requirements. Only problem is…I don't think they want to, since they know the longer they're Genin, the longer I stay a Jonin instead of ANBU…"

Jiraiya seemed to think about this.

"But I bet if they saw me go back happy, it'd be different. I'll need a new team anyways…so, well, you know, I—"

"—you'd be happy if I went with you." Jiraiya finished her statement.

"Yeah, pretty much." She admitted.

Jiraiya changed the subject. "I was thinking of doing something other then being a ninja."

Kaori's eyes got wide in shock. "What?! You can't do that, you're a Jonin!"

Jiraiya gave a smile and made comforting hand gestures. "I didn't mean like that, I meant do something on the side. I've always sort of had an interest in writing, I just…" he sighed. "Don't know what I'd write about…"

After a moment, Kaori laughed. "_That's_ why you're afraid to join ANBU? Because you wouldn't have time to write?"

"Well…I'd need to wait until my team becomes Chuunin also."

Kaori sighed in relief. He wasn't running away. Well, he was, but not the way she though he was.

"You do know, Jiraiya-chan that they'd probably make you a squad captain the minute you joined."

"Huh? That's only _if_ I can even get in, and squad captain? That can take over a decade in ANBU to accomplish."

Kaori rolled her eyes. "Your really modest when it comes to your skills, you know that? First of all, ANBU knows your reputation, they wouldn't even insult you by making you have to try to get in. Hell, I bet they already have a personal mask made for you." They both laughed at this.

"And as for captain…we all know that you're cut out for the job. Hell, I used to hear ANBU directors talk about you, and that was like, six years ago."

"You're joking with me." Jiraiya waved it off.

She just gave him a no nonsense glare.

"I don't know…a lot of people might have said I'd be great in ANBU, but I'm just a little skeptical. Even Sarutobi-sensei doesn't think I'd go well with it…"

"…because out of all of his students, you're the only one who even has a chance to get in. I'll be frank, Tsunade's an idiot when it comes to stealth and Orochimaru, well, none of us could ever trust him. You on the other hand…well, you know why you'd fit in well. ANBU and Hokage's have had quarrels before, and Hokage-sama probably just doesn't want to see one of his students ever have to wind up on the other side. I'm not saying life or death, because that's just silly, but ANBU has been known to piss off more then one Hokage…"

"I really don't know, Kaori-chan, but I promise I'll think about it, okay?"

She sighed. "Okay, at least that's something."

The two shared a familiar moment.

Jiraiya must have been in a better mood, because his eyes were starting to drift below the neck of Kaori. "Say, Kaori-chan, think you could do me a favor?"

Kaori crossed her arms for the first time since seeing Jiraiya today. "It depends, why should I do_ you_ a favor?"

Jiraiya smirked, and replied casually, "Because the other name on that marriage certificate is yours."

**-Minato-**

The blonde was sitting on the floor of his dark room rummaging through a box of pictures. He sighed and looked at one of the more recent ones he had framed on his desk. It was the picture of Team Ronin, him, Jiraiya, Katsu, and Ryokumaru. Did Minato fight for Team Ronin? Not in particular, at least, not above all else. He also had a picture of both of his parents together. It was framed as well, but it was still much older looking then the one of Team Ronin. Was Minato fighting for his parents? Not in the least. Actually, Minato didn't think much of them. He then came to the third and last picture on his desk. He held the frame for several long moments and then slipped the picture out of the frame. He folded it neatly and slipped it into his forehead protector before tightening it to make sure it would stay.

Minato then tied the protector to his forehead, before opening the windows to let some light in. The door opened just as he did so and he turned to see Sora as usual. Not that she had to, but she always came in the mornings. She sighed when she saw him. "See, you could seat a clock to your morning routine, brat, now let's go make some breakfa—"

Her sentence was broken by Minato suddenly hugging her. Sora's arms slowly settled into a return hug to Minato.

"What's this?" she asked curiously.

"It's a hug, a basic part of human social interaction that shows the hug's recipient that they are appreciated and respected."

Sora stood quietly for a few moments, the embrace silent.

"_Is this real…or is he just—"_

Sora patted Minato on the head to signify that it was enough. He let go, and she gave him a cheery smile. "Alright, otouto, let's go and get you something to eat" Minato nodded, returning the smile, which was unusual when it was just him and her. He walked past her out of his room and to the kitchen. Sora watched him as he walked.

"—_putting on a mask."_

Sora looked in his room to see pictures from a box dumped on the floor. She approached them, and then noticed out of the corner of her eye a picture frame on his bed. It was empty. Judging by the other two remaining picture frames, it was the frame of an important picture.

It was the only picture the two of them had together, and now it was gone. She looked around his room and couldn't see it.

"_I guess he's growing up…I guess I couldn't expect to play the 'older sister-little brother' game with him forever."_ Sora though, heavily disheartened.

"Sora-neechan! Are you coming?" She heard Minato yell from down the hall.

She did something that Minato was already a master of; masked her emotions.

With fake-enthusiasm she called back, "Yeah! I'm coming!"

**-Sarutobi's House, One Hour Later-**

Team Ronin, minus one, met outside Sarutobi's house exactly on time. A few moments later he opened the door, not wearing his Hokage robes, instead, just leisure clothes. They all got a good look, as it wasn't common to see him as such. At his side was a small boy, around five or six but no more. His hair and facial features were nearly identical to Sarutobi's but younger. The Hokage smiled. The three Genin bowed at the sight of their ninja leader.

"Ohayo, Hokage-sama" Minato spoke for the group as they bowed. He turned to face the boy as he rose. "You must be Shiro-kun," Minato announced, giving him a light smile. The boy smiled back and gave a nod.

"My name is Namikaze Minato, and these are my team mates." Minato made a hand gesture to Katsu and Ryokumaru.

"I'm Rokku Ryokumaru," said person announced, and then looked at the purple clad boy.

"Otonashi Katsu." Was all he said. The boy looked shyly up to his father, who gave him a reassuring nod.

Minato once again looked the boy in the eyes. "Are you excited to go and see your okaasan and otoutosan?"

"Yay!" The boy responded in a high tone, but pleased none the less.

"Good luck on your first mission, Team Ronin." The Hokage said with a slight wave to the three ninja. "And take care, Shiro. Make sure to say hi to okaasan and Asuma for me." The boy nodded, and started walking with the ninja team. Sarutobi closed the door behind him, completely coincident in the team, yet curious as to Jiraiya's location.

The boys made their way out of Konoha pretty quickly. They all examined Shiro, who was a commonly dressed six year old boy. He was quite quiet for his age, but obviously not stupid.

Like they would expect for any mission, they all had their ninja gear with them; this included Katsu's katana.

Ryokumaru was excited. This was his first mission as a ninja, and he wasn't going to settle for anything less then success. It was only a D-Rank mission though, which almost zero chance of failure, but that didn't do anything to dim the feeling.

Katsu was ready to prove himself. This D-Rank mission was just the first of many, all of which he would complete before moving up in the ranks as a ninja. He was also excited, though tried not to show it off.

Minato on the other hand, felt nothing. He wasn't excited, he wasn't happy, nor was he concerned. His outside emotions didn't show this however, which portrayed him not far away from what either of his team mates were feeling.

**-Hours Later-**

The trip to bringing Shiro wasn't a hassle at all. It had taken about two hours walking to reach the village. It was small rural town where Sarutobi's wife lived. She, unlike the Hokage, wasn't a ninja, and had no desire to live inside a ninja village. Due to safety reasons, it's speculated that she has a full squad of ANBU that watches the house at all times, but only ANBU itself would know for sure.

Team Ronin sat on top of the roof of the house. It was starting to grow dark by now, as they had been there for a long time. They had heard laughter and much other joy happening inside the house, which touched every boy at some level inside, hearing the sounds of a happy family. No one had brought up the subject.

Every joke, riddle, and game that they had used to keep themselves occupied until it was time to take Shiro home was used up.

Minato was the first to break the long silence. "So, Ryo-kun, I hear your clan is pretty wealthy."

"Nah," Ryokumaru responded, actually non-hyperactive for the time being, "Well, it's partially true I guess. You see, our clan is small, but there are two parts to it. We have extended family that is heavy into architecture and they make a lot of money, but when it comes to the actually ninja clan, we're about as well off as any other clan."

Minato gave a crooked smile. "Bummer, I was hoping you'd have all sorts of cool stuff at your house."

Ryokumaru matched his grin, "Well, we do have a huge television with a new videogame system, surround sound and everything."

Minato and Katsu both looked impressed. "Me and my neechan don't have a TV, and I've never actually played a videogame."

Katsu spoke next. "I have a small television in my room, but it doesn't get much use."

Ryokumaru smiled a bit more. "Why don't both of you come by sometime? I never have anyone to play games with."

Katsu looked skeptical. "I don't know…our relationship is completely professional…"

"I'll come over." Minato spoke, cutting Katsu off.

Both boys looked at Katsu almost pleadingly. Katsu sighed. "How troublesome…fine, I'll come by whenever we're going to do this."

Ryokumaru and Minato smiled and jumped off of the roof, to be followed by Katsu once he put his sword back on his back. The knocked on the door, explained that it was about time they took Shiro home since it was almost dark and they had a ways to go. In fifteen minutes he was ready to go, and Team Ronin respectfully bowed to the Mrs. Sarutobi, and started their leave.

The boys began their way back, the first hour filled with Shiro chatting about the fun that he had playing with his little brother, and how happy he was. Team Ronin gave him plenty of positive comments, but eventually moved on to different topics of their own.

"Why do you think that Jiraiya-sensei didn't want to come with us?" Ryokumaru was the first to ask.

"He said he had things to do. He is a Jonin after all." Was Katsu's response.

"Well yeah…but it's our first mission."

"Maybe," Started Minato, involving himself in the conversation, "He didn't want to interfere to let us feel more independent as ninja, instead of just his students."

Katsu nodded, showing that it made sense. "Yeah…that might be it. You're probably right, Minato." Was Ryokumaru's response.

Sometime later they were close to Konoha. It was full night outside, the moon barely lighting the ground of the unlit dirt road to the hidden village. Sounds of animals could be heard periodically. Shiro seemed nervous at first, but it was offset by the fact that he had three ninja with him, who even though young, looked pretty big to the little boy.

The concealed stalker pulled his hood up and made sure his mask was secure. He leapt through the trees until he was ahead of the group, and then withdrew three senbon. He descended from his position, senbon in battle position, and dropped into a fighting stance.

Team Ronin was quick to react. Minato was in front of Shiro in an instant, with Ryokumaru and Katsu in front of him.

The figure was non-descriptive, wearing black cargo pants tapped at the bottom, with a long sleeved black shirt. He wore a black cloak that covered his hair, a face mask that covered over his nose, and sunglasses, that though seemed inappropriate during the night, were obviously not to keep the sun out of his eyes.

"What do you want…?" Katsu said in a low, chill tone, not drawling a weapon yet, but his hand to his shuriken container. Minato was busy evaluating an escape route.

"The boy, turn him over, and we will be done with this." The enemy's voice was shallow with little volume to it. The team could barely hear him.

"What do you want with a boy?" Katsu said, raising an eyebrow, while slowly moving his hand down to his thigh.

"That is the son of the Sandaime Hokage. Now answer my question, for I will not answer any more of yours."

Katsu looked at the ground, and passed a brief glance over to Ryokumaru while he did so. Ryokumaru then needed only to look at Minato for him to understand the plan. Shiro was scared, but quiet.

"Okay, we don't want any trouble." Was Katsu's response. The enemy seemed to somewhat drop his guard. Katsu turned around, but quickly reached into his shuriken holder, un-strapping it and arming himself with three shuriken in almost an instant.

"Minato! NOW!" Katsu yelled. He span around again, swinging his arm while he projected the shurikens at the man. Even though he had seemed off guard, he almost reflexively threw his three senbon and countered every shuriken, causing their direction to change, and missing their original target.

However, this had been a distraction. Minato turned around and picked Shiro up into his arms, and jumped. Ryokumaru was right there for the follow up. He put both of his hands together, intertwining his fingers, and felt Minato's foot settle on his hand. He pulled up as hard as he could, as Minato pushed his Stamina to force himself far into the air, with the help of Ryokumaru.

Minato's trajectory was good, and Shiro clung tightly to him as he started to head back towards the ground on the other side of the man-in-black.

"_He must be a ninja, and a good one at that. Senbon are nothing compared to a good shuriken, and he deflected all of my attacks. It takes a master to be able to use senbon that effectively." _Katsu thought.

This unnamed ninja wasn't a step short when it came to their little plan. He spun around, grabbing out three more senbon, and launched them at lethal speeds at the midair Minato, who saw them coming.

Even a ninja can't dodge in midair.

The three senbon shot through Minato's right leg, one at the ankle, another one in the middle of his shin, and the last inches below his knee. All three long needles were stuck within the bone, and Minato's wounds immediately started to bleed.

He hit the ground, and collapsed instantly on that leg, dropping into a roll to land him and Shiro safely, the latter looking quite frightened at what had just happened.

"Minato! Just get out of here, we'll take him!!" Ryokumaru ordered as he and Katsu started to close distance on the enemy.

Minato, obviously couldn't run. He was in horrible pain, the tendons in his leg possibly snapped and the bones definitely fractured. However, he forced his way up, and through sheer willpower, managed to support most of his weight on one leg, half hopping half limping trying to guide Shiro quickly away. The little boy did what he could to support Minato, and they proceeded to flee to the nearby Konoha for aid.

The Cloaked Ninja (which will be used to refer from now on) ignored the wounded Minato fleeing, and faced the two other ninja charging at him.

"Too bad…you should have just surrendered." Was his cold response.

"Katsu, let's take him togeth—"

"—I can take him alone!!" Was Katsu's shouted response to Ryokumaru's strategy.

Katsu pushed Ryokumaru out of the way for a head-on-charge at the Cloaked Ninja.

"KATSU!"

Katsu nimbly jumped for an aerial kick.

The taijutsu failed. The Cloaked Ninja sidestepped the attack and grabbed Katsu's leg before he could stop them. With a quick spin he released the boy who went flying.

Ryokumaru was right behind the figure and he threw a punch, but it was blocked with ease when the Cloaked Ninja spun back around.

"You're goin' down!" Was Ryokumaru's battle cry as he continued to throw useless punches, all dodged with minimal effort. He finished his combo with a round kick, but the Cloaked Ninja ducked under it, and clenched a fist. Ryokumaru swore he heard a snicker.

"**Hiden Taijutsu: Jikoku Make!"** _(Secret Taijutsu: Instant Defeat)_

Katsu looked in horror at what happened to Ryokumaru next. Their enemy clenched a fist, and Katsu heard, even from his distance, a crack as the punch connected…with Ryokumaru's groin.

"What...kind of ninja…are you…" Was all Ryokumaru managed to say before he collapsed into a fettle position.

The Cloaked Ninja stood up strait as Katsu pounced back up. He was staring at the back of his target.

"I won't lose to you." Katsu said, starting to make hand seals.

The other ninja turned around quickly.

"_He's using a jutsu? Well, it can't be anything serious for someone his level."_

As soon as Katsu's hands stopped at the last hand seal, all of the shadows emitted by the moon began to twist around both of them. The trees almost looked as if they bent, and what was formerly the boy's shadow seemed to animate itself into some sort of tendril.

"You're now inside of my Kageshihai _(Shadow Control)_. The error you made was to underestimate me. Now, face the consequences. **Ankoku Yari!**" _(Darkness Spear)_

The unfortunate Cloaked Ninja dropped back into a defensive stance as Katsu's shadow that had already animated blast from the ground, seeming to pull into itself close by shadows and twisting them all together into one slender javelin.

The Cloaked Ninja quickly ducked under the initial attack, as it was moving too fast to turn. He quickly rolled on his side and watched at the spear turned in mid thrust to again hit its target. He jumped, but watched as it once more bent itself to find its mark. The Cloaked Ninja had no way of avoiding the attack in mid air. He braced himself for the impact.

It never came. The ninja opened his eyes to realize that there was no spear, and landed on the ground to face Katsu again.

"Genjutsu…and a cleaver one at that. Not something I'd expect out of a brat like you."

Katsu didn't take the insult very well. As he prepaired for another attack. **"Ankoku Yari!"**

The same weapon manifested itself a second time, but now when it flew at the Cloaked Ninja, he made no attempt to dodge it.

Blood dropped. The victimized ninja looked to see and feel a very real bleeding wound from his right shoulder. It was a deep injury.

The ninja clutched his bleeding arm. The wound wasn't too bad, but the fact that there was one in the first place is what disturbed him.

Katsu chuckled. "That wasn't any normal Ankoku Yari, it's called Riaru Ankoku Yari _(True Darkness Spear)_. I already watched the primary arm you used to attack with. Now that it's injured, your combat ability would significantly drop. Surrender."

The purple clad boy spoke with a hate and coldness in his voice that was not common in boys his age.

In the same instant he uttered the final word his foe body flickered. Katsu didn't have time to turn and look behind him, but he could hear the words. "Maybe next time you should account for those who are ambidextrous."

With his left hand, the Cloaked Ninja pounded Katsu in the back of the neck. The boy dropped to his knees as his nerves were instantly shot.

The still standing shinobi looked to see Ryokumaru now rising once more. In a swift motion he jumped so he was several yards in front of the boy and drew a handful of senbon at the same time.

With one flick of the left hand all five needles shot into Ryokumaru's left side. He screamed out in pain, and dropped to a knee. Now, both boys were immobilized. The Cloaked Ninja was fairly sure he had won.

"You are pathetic. Brats like you two shouldn't even call yourselves ninja. At your ages, you should be over the delusions of grandeur of a great life of being a shinobi. Both of you should just quit."

Even after the short speech, the black robed figure was surprised to see the brown haired boy still rising. He was holding his bleeding chest, one arm hanging limp.

Once he was on his feet, he let go of his side and withdrew a kunai. "I…will—" The boy was breathing hard now, his voice extremely hoarse. "—not… give up my dreams!!"

The Cloaked Ninja allowed himself to laugh. "You think you still have a choice? I have already proven that I am superior to you, and with your lung filled with blood, I'm surprised you can even breath properly, let alone stand. You can't even use your left arm in that condition. You can't expect to win."

The Cloaked Ninja withdrew but one needle this time, and carefully aimed it at Ryokumaru's heart.

"_This…this is exactly like the academy," _Ryokumaru thought, _"It's like the test where you needed to deflect the shuriken…but I failed. I could do it this time, couldn't I?"_

Ryokumaru panted, the ninja waiting for him to make a move. _"No! I couldn't do it before, I couldn't do it now! But even still…that doesn't mean I'm worthless!"_ Ryokumaru's eyes flickered over to his slowly rising companion. Katsu was at least in condition to fight. _"Looks like it's up to you…"_

The Rokku boy gripped his kunai harder. "This is a clash of Stories."

Blood began to drool out of his mouth. "And here…it's either your story—"

Kunai out in front, Ryokumaru charged. "—OR MINE!!"

The ninja threw the needle with ease, and it connected perfectly with Ryokumaru. What he didn't expect was Ryokumaru to keep on going.

Blood dropped.

Ryokumaru's injury was dripping blood off of the end of the needle. However, unexpectedly, he rammed his kunai fully into the left arm of the Cloaked Ninja.

"You didn't even try to dodge." The ninja said, as he watched him holding onto the kunai with everything he had left in him. His hands started to shiver, and he dropped to the ground. He shivered for a few moments, but then stopped. Despite the fact that the weapon was impaled in his arm, the Cloaked Ninja just watched Ryokumaru's body.

Katsu saw everything. The blow to the neck had put him out momentarily, but he was now standing.

The ninja turned around and reached into his pouch for senbon, but had none left. With a slight curse, the kunai was ripped from his own shoulder.

"_Damn, now both of shoulder muscles have been torn. This puts me at less then fifty percent of my normal battle capacity for hand to hand combat and jutsu speed."_

Katsu, fire in his eyes, slowly reached to his back, and pulled the sword from the straps that kept it secure. He left it in its scabbard, but held it with both hands as he would a katana regardless. The boy was in a fighting stance.

"You…you are _not_ going to walk away from this." Katsu said, trying his best to keep his cool, anticipating the enemy's movements.

The Cloaked Ninja dropped into a defensive stance with the kunai, his only weapon to block his foes attacks now. Still, he was unsure why the boy didn't draw the sword, instead of keeping it trapped inside of the heavy saya.

Katsu was the first to strike. He made a horizontal slash, which was parried by the kunai. He used the momentum from the last attack to pull up for another attack, but it was dodged in kind. He noticed however, that his foe couldn't rely on strength any more and could only avoid his attack with finesse. If he could keep up the pressure just a little longer…

He jumped back and took a breath, but before the enemy could catch his Katsu jumped forward again for a stab. This one was barely avoided. Just as it was, Katsu grinned and turned the blunt weapon to its side, and slashed again, completely using his foe's dodge against him.

The weapon contacted hard against the head of his enemy, the chains on his weapon jingling. He rolled, and popped back up, but was no doubt hurt from the blow to his head.

Katsu just grinned as he was facing down his foe.

"_Damn, I _really_ wasn't expecting something like this. I'm going to have to use a lethal attack to get out of this…very annoying." _Though the Cloaked Ninja.

The kunai was dropped and hand steals started to form. Katsu, almost too afraid to try stop an unknown technique, just watched the seconds it took to complete. He was sure that his enemy didn't have much Stamina left, so whatever this Chakra was being used on, was important. He had to make sure he could survive it.

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" **_(Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)_

The fire burst from the Cloaked Ninja a blazing current heading strait to Katsu.

Katsu closed his eyes for a brief moment that seemed much longer.

"_So…I'm Wind, ehh? I wonder if it's possible to defeat his fire with my wind…"_

He already knew the answer: anything was possible

Katsu's eyes shot open, as yelled out his technique, dashing strait at the fire ball. He was going to make it or break it.

"**Hien!!" **_(Flying Swallow)_

A blue Chakra exploded around Katsu's weapon, practically doubling its length, and easily tripling its power.

He pulled the weapon down hard, literally cutting the fireball in two as both small fireballs exploded right behind him, burning the sides of his arms. A much better scenario then if he had taken the fireball head on.

Now he was close to the surprised enemy ninja, and was preparing his secondary attack.

This slash was it; this slash was victory. His blade cut again, but it made no contact.

It was like the Cloaked Ninja knew how he was going to attack.

All he saw was the person appear suddenly, and smash a fist into his chest. He could feel the hurt of his ribs being broken.

"How…" he breathed out, his chest burning with every breath.

"Don't blame yourself; some of us are just born better then others."

Katsu dropped his sword, and the Chakra that had outlined the weapon evaporated. The ninja let him drop to the ground unconscious.

**-Minato-**

The blonde could almost feel it when Katsu was taken out, and not five minutes later, turned sharply to be face to face with his assailant. He was different this time, however, having both of his shoulders bleeding, unarmed, and from what Minato could tell, missing more then half of his Stamina. Still, this was a person to be reckoned with. Minato looked down at Shiro. The boy seemed scared. The Genin's leg was still bleeding, but since most of his ligaments were still intact, he had quickly adapted to the temporarily walking in agony.

"Both of your allies are defeated. You cannot beat me. Turn over the boy now, and let this pointless struggle be over with."

Minato didn't respond instantly, instead, his mind ran through everything that had occurred, and he understood everything.

"Actually," he started to say as Shiro hid behind him, "There are several things I want to point out to you. The first thing is, you wear those glasses to hide the fact that you have a dojutsu, am I wrong?"

The Cloaked Ninja chuckled, signaling a yes to Minato.

"Second, you're disguising your voice, fairly well, but it isn't fool proof. You're a woman."

At this, the Cloaked Ninja didn't laugh. This boy was good.

Real good.

"And third," At this Minato smirked, "That's not a child—"

There was a puff of smoke behind Minato.

"—it's a clone."

Now the Cloaked Ninja was pissed. This one little kid had completely figured her out. He officially moved up to the status of "too good."

"Well," the Cloaked Ninja spoke, this time a feminine voice. "This aught to be a good fight." She removed her glasses and tossed her cloak off, releasing long black hair and a soft face.

It was the eyes that really caught Minato's attention. They were red, with spinning black wheels inside of them.

"_So…Sharingan…that explains the uncanny accuracy with the senbon."_

"Actually, no, I will not be what you call a 'good fight.'"

The un-Cloaked Ninja raised an eyebrow.

"I probably won't be much more of a hassle then my allies were. However, with the head start Shiro-kun has, all I have to do is hold you off, which I am completely capable of doing. He will return to Konoha where you will not be able to harm him, I complete my mission, and you fail yours." Minato spoke in a cold tone, showing no emotion what so ever. Even his usually bright face was without smile and completely without cheer, brought to levels of apathy most people can't reach.

"Besides, you weren't intending on hurting him at all, were you. Now that I see your eyes…I'm almost sure of it."

Now the girl was unsure if she should be pissed or amazed. "How can you tell?"

"The eyes, Sharingan, means you're from Konoha. Also, you waited to fight my allies before following us. Even if my leg was wounded and you didn't think we could get far, I was the one with your mark. A simple hit and run would be enough to grab your objective and leave. I don't know what your plans are, but they're unsuccessful."

She sighed, and turned to look off the trail.

White hair, dark eyes, with red face marks and everything, Jiraiya emerged.

Even this Minato had not completely figured out.

"Oy, Mina-chan!!" Jiraiya said with a very out-of-mood-smile.

**-End Chapter Five-**

Thanks for reading! Please comment and review.

Preview - Chapter Six: Living Behind a Mask


	6. Living Behind a Mask

**Edit: **Wow this used to be a huge author's note. I'm pretty sure I wasted some life writing it and some people wasted their lives reading it. By the end of this cleaning up, I'll of cut off five thousand words worth of author's notes. Pretty bad, isn't it...

* * *

They both stood in nothingness.

The boy looked at the other.

His expression was hidden, concealed by the mask.

"How long," the other inquired, "How long have you basked in your hollow pride, concealing morbid truths that within you hide."

The other changed location to be behind the boy with the mask. He didn't turn to face it.

"Your life has become a facade steeled, merely masquerading, unrevealed."

"The blackness swallows me…" the boy responded in a whisper.

The other paid no attention to his words. "Imitating joy with a plastic smile—"

"I have no choice." He spoke quickly.

"—completely absorbed in self denial."

"I have _no choice_." He repeated, firmer this time around.

The other disappeared, still mocking him as it continued. "Remorse for this lie, you cannot feel."

The boy turned to find where the other had gone, finding it very suddenly in front of him.

"Because for you, it's all that's real."

Now face to face with it, the boy could see the other's face and features clearly.

He looked upon the image of himself.

One without a mask.

**-Chapter Six: Living Behind a Mask-**

Minato lay on the white hospital bed. His leg was in a cast from the knee down. His cloths and forehead protector were but a pile on the ground, them being exchanged for plain white robes.

The removal of the senbon in his leg was indeed painful, but Minato didn't let it show during the procedure, or even after. Needles are thin, and his puncture wounds avoided most of his leg's muscle mass. The bones were penetrated, but the doctor said that the cast should be off in about a week or two. Even after that he'd be weak in the shin for sometime, but it was far from a permanent injury.

He turned his head to face the bed on the other end of the room. Ryokumaru lay with his shirt off, his chest heavily wrapped. He even had an IV. According to Jiraiya, all of their enemy's attacks were with senbon on purpose. The weapon causes little damage, and in order to use it properly one needs to have a certain degree of mastery over the anatomy of the human body. Combine with the sharingan, the attacks were precise, enough to bring the team down, but all none-lethal for the most part. The needle that Ryokumaru took to the heart completely missed the muscle, but was still millimeters away.

Katsu sat in a chair staring off in the distance. He hadn't taken any serious injuries; only two stray senbon that barely pierced his arm. However, he did take a couple heavy blows to the lower neck. It was enough to break his collar bone. Under his shirt, Minato was pretty sure he also had treated burn wounds on his arms. The neck brace that Katsu now sported didn't seem fitting for his appearance.

It was dark outside, and Minato had already figured that he wouldn't be making it home until tomorrow. Fortunately, with the help of medical jutsu, the team could probably be active again in a week or two, and the bills would all be covered by their insurance.

Minato thought back to Jiraiya's explanation after the initial shock had passed. He had purposely not gone along with them so he could set up the ambush. Their opponent had been the student of one of Jiraiya's friends, or so he said. The one thing Jiraiya had yet to explain was why he did it.

Ryokumaru was half asleep. His eyes were open, but the pain killers for the operation kept him out of it. Katsu was likewise not attentive, but more likely for different reasons.

The door opened and Jiraiya entered. He had left about an hour ago to speak with the Hokage and make sure Shiro arrived back to his father like he was supposed to. Katsu snapped out of it, and Minato was already looking for him; waiting for an answer.

The Jonin spoke seriously, closing the door behind him and leaning up against the wall. "The kid is fine: the mission was a success."

"You think so…" Katsu said quietly, almost as if to himself. His words were bitter, singed with the taste of defeat.

Jiraiya nodded. "Yes, it was a success. The three of you managed to escort Sarutobi Shiro to his mothers house, and take him back to his father without him being hurt in any way."

"But it was going to be like that no matter what. That girl was targeting us, not Shiro." Katsu said, his words not lightening up on his sensei.

"That is true, but the three of you didn't know that." As Jiraiya spoke, Ryokumaru seemed to somewhat turn his head, still looking like he was dazed, but somewhat more aware. "And despite the obstacles, you managed to succeed your mission."

"Why." Minato said almost immediately after Jiraiya finished talking, cutting off what Katsu was about to respond with. Everyone in the room knew what Minato was asking.

"Why not." Jiraiya responded, closing his eyes and smirking. "I needed to know all of your capabilities. A ninja's true powers and virtues are only discovered in the heat of life or death battle. Even though this wasn't the case, it was simulated to appear as if it was. Of all the things you three could have done, I think you made the right choice. Most Genin aren't faced with a situation anywhere near as dangerous as this, yet none of you ran." Jiraiya gave Minato a sly grin.

"Ran from the mission that is."

Minato nodded. "So it was a test of devotion?"

"That and humility. It's a shame, but too many Genin are killed in action thinking they're invincible. As a team, we need to know that we aren't impervious. Though we are ninja, we wear the same bodies everyone does."

Ryokumaru seemed to have snapped out of it at some point in the conversation.

"How about I take you all out for lunch tomorrow, and make it up for all of you, ehh?" Jiraiya asked, giving a smile to try and cheer up the moment. It didn't work very well, but no one said no either.

"Well, Mina-chan, Ryo-chanu, I'll be here to pick the two of you up tomorrow morning. Kat-chan, you can go ahead home tonight. But before anyone does anything, I have someone who would like to say something to the lot of you."

With this statement in the air, Jiraiya turned his head to the door. It opened, and in walked a girl. She looked not much older then the three of them, but was somewhat taller. She wore a sleeveless blue kimono with white trim, and the red and white Uchiha emblem on the back of it. She used her konoha forehead protector as a sash to keep it around her waist. Her shoulders seemed to have bandages on them, showing that Team Ronin had managed to do something. Due to the fact that she was probably heading home, showed them that they didn't manage to do much.

Her hair was raven black and held back in a long pony tail. She had a touch of pink lip gloss. She wore the same dark sunglasses, despite it being night outside. At the end of the kimono she had typical sandals with tabi socks. Minato doubted that she carried ninja gear under the kimono. Besides Jiraiya, her appearance attracted the attention of the boys in the room.

She reached up and removed her sunglasses, revealing large, dark and potent eyes. They seemed much different from the pair that Minato had seen earlier. After this, she bowed.

"Excuse me for the intrusion." Her voice may have been soft and smooth, but it demanded attention none-the-less. "I am Uchiha Masami, and as much as I would have liked to meet under more pleasant circumstances that time has already expired. I would like to apologize for what I did to all of you boys earlier, and hope that we could overlook that confrontation in the future." She looked up at Jiraiya who nodded, and then turned back to the boys. "I would love to stay and chat—"

All three boys were completely silent, either trapped in their own thoughts, not sure what to think, or semi-drugged.

"—but I'm going to let you all rest. I hope all of you rest well and recover soon. Good night."

She left the room after that. All heads turned to Jiraiya, and there was silence.

"Is the _entire_ Uchiha clan like that?" Ryokumaru asked in a sleepy and drab tone.

Jiraiya crossed his arms and sighed. "Yup, for the most part."

**-Katsu-**

The dark haired boy with the neck brace waved to Jiraiya, signaling that he was fine, and closed the door to his apartment behind him. He gazed into the dark house. The smell of smoke and alchohol was as strong as ever, mixed with other unfamiliar smells as well. As he turned the corner into the living room, he saw his mother lounging on the couch. Her cold eyes watched him, and she held a half empty bottle of some sort of liquor in her hand. Her clothes were ruffled, it not dingily put on, indicating that some of those men had been to the house earlier. Katsu's expression didn't change. He was used to it.

"It's one o'clock." She said, as she studied his figure, wrinkling her nose the way she always did when she looked at him. "Looks like you failed your first mission."

Katsu didn't respond, but he tightened his hands into fists.

"I told you that you weren't cut out to be a Konoha nin." She spat.

"The mission wasn't a failure." He whispered.

"So your team mates managed to save you? Sounds like you're dragging them down. Maybe it's just you who's the failure."

The boy wasn't saddened. He would have been at one point of his life, but he had hardened his heart over time. The emotion that Katsu felt was more akin to rage.

He took further steps toward his room, and then spoke louder. "I'm moving out to live by myself. As of tomorrow, you won't have to see me again."

She sneered. If there was one thing she hated more then her son, it was not being in control of her son. "What makes you think that I'll let you?"

Katsu reached for the handle of his sheathed katana and pulled it, the strap around his chest popping off, and he turned as to align the point of the blade to her position.

"What makes _you_ think that you _have_ a choice?"

She shut her mouth. If there was one thing that she hated more then her son or not being able to control him, it was his sword.

**-Jiraiya-**

The white-haired Jonin made his way down the streets after dropping his student off. It was a hard choice; to make his own team targets, but in his opinion it was necessary. After all, his sensei had done the same for him, abet slightly differently. The same point got across.

Jiraiya stopped at a point, and decided on a detour before going home. It only required turning on a few different streets to get to a small park. He sat down on a bench. It was dark, of course, and quiet. A few distant streetlights lit the village, but the moon was the true light. Jiraiya looked up at the stars.

He used to watch the stars with his dad. They'd camp out, and the two of them would sit in a tree for hours, sometimes even until sunrise, just to watch the stars. If they were lucky, they'd see a comet, or even a meteor shower. That was rare, though.

Actually, there was another person that Jiraiya watched the stars with. He looked around for comfort that no one was watching, and took off his forehead protector. It was simple to take the photograph out from it. Watching it, he smiled.

It was a picture of Jiraiya, though much younger, in a black tux. He looked somewhat grumpy, maybe impatient. At the time, he hadn't wanted the picture to be taken. Next to him was a shorter girl, with sleek black hair in an elegant white dress: a wedding dress. Her arms were crossed, absentmindedly holding a bouquet of flowers. It didn't go with the outfit very well, but there was a skin tight matching white mask that covered her neck and lower face.

Jiraiya chuckled. He remembered when that picture was taken crystal clear. Now that he thought about it, neither of them looked happy, very unlike a married couple should look. They didn't even kiss at the ceremony. Even the fact that they didn't wear kimonos was humorous, which they would have if it was a local wedding.

"It really brings back nostalgic memories, doesn't it, Jiraiya-chan."

"Yeah…" Jiraiya said dreamily under his breath.

There was a pause as something clicked in Jiraiya's head.

"AHHHH!" He fell out of his seat with shock, juggling with the picture at the same time. He eventually caught it, to try and hide it around his back. It was of course, Kaori who had surprised him. She had managed to sneak up on Jiraiya so well that he didn't notice.

She wore the same outfit as usual: shorts, skin-tight spandex shirt, and her usual weapons, but it included an unzipped Jonin vest, Konoha's headband, and sunglasses. With the mask, forehead protector, and glasses, barely any of her face could be seen. Even more unfortunately for Jiraiya, the vest covered all of the good parts of what he normally looked at. Oh well, at least he could see most of her legs.

"You ehh…didn't see any, did you?" Jiraiya asked, noticeably sweating.

"See what? The fact that you carry our wedding picture with you?" Kaori responded, waltzing around the bench to kneel down in front of him.

Jiraiya cleared his throat, and stood back up, slipping the picture in the headband behind his back before placing it into his pocket.

"Can we just forget about that, I mean, I don't know _how_ that could have _possibly _gotten in there…"

"Mmhmm, sure." Kaori purred.

He sighed, looking embarrassed.

"Look…I'm not sure what to sa—"

"Mind if I jump the gun?" The konoichi interrupted.

Jiraiya looked up at her questioningly. Shit, now he was going to have to come up with some answers.

"_What am I supposed to say to her? It isn't like I can admit anything, but saying something stupid would be just as bad…"_

"I'll just take that silence as a yes." Jiriaya saw a gleam in her eyes. "The Uchiha Autumn Festival is coming up in a few weeks, and I haven't attended for a long time now, so I'm gonna be expected. I realized that I don't have a date. Want to come?" There was no hint of bashfulness or timidity in her voice.

Jiraiya's mouth dropped. She had actually changed the subject for him. Why would she do that for him…?

"Wait a second, am I being asked out by a girl?"

"What, you didn't hear me the first time?" She raised an eyebrow, also moving to take off her sunglasses and fold them away. Jiraiya's attention was immediately drawn away from her legs and to her eyes. In that moment, Jiraiya saw something in them: something special. It was gone in the next second; making him question whether or not it was even there in the first place.

He let the moment linger, partly dwelling on his own thoughts, mostly trying to ascertain his own thoughts on this baffling woman.

"I'm not an Uchiha." He said plainly.

"I'm taking a friend on a date, so what?"

"You know how your clan is with keeping the 'blood pure." He continued to probe her eyes for whatever he saw there before. Whatever it was, it was something beautiful, something grand. Something familiar. Something forgotten. What was it?

She groaned. "I'm not very keen on marrying a cousin of mine. Besides, it's just a date, not like you're getting anything good afterwards." There was a smirk at the end of that statement.

Jiraiya matched her smirk, starting to feel a bit more like himself. "So then why would I go if there isn't anything in it for me?"

"I'll be wearing a kimono." She crossed her arms.

"So…when was this again?" Jiraiya was already starting to visualize her.

"Two weeks. You'll dress nicely, and try to keep your eyes to yourself—"

"—or you." He quickly added.

"Have you ever gotten the feeling that we get along on a _whole_ different level then most ex's do?" She questioned.

"Hey, hey, hey! We aren't technically "ex's" 'cause we were never together."

There was another pause after he said this. Jiraiya turned around and looked up. The moon and all of its stars were up ahead, playing a silent musical, one that you listened to with your eyes, but felt with your heart.

"Do you really…regret that mission, Jiraiya-chan?" She asked finally. The atmosphere became very serious.

He remained quiet still.

"I'm lost, Kaori-chan. I…" Jiraiya looked down. That pain in his heart, the pain that always pulled him down, was tugging exceptionally hard tonight. "I don't know what to do without him. I—I don't know anything anymore." Jiraiya did what he could to keep his voice and body language composed.

Kaori looked at his back, almost able to feel the pain that was emanating off of him.

"But I do know—" Jiraiya said as he turned to face her. Kaori almost gasped as she saw his face. It was bold, strong, and resolved. She hadn't seen him like this ever since he lost his father. He looked like the old Jiraiya again. "—that this year I've spent without you, has been the hardest I've ever had to live."

He stole Kaori's breath away. She knew very well that Jiraiya had had a very hard life…but was the hardest one he had really the one that he had spent without her?

"_Nah, he's just saying that……but…he looks so serious. Maybe he does mean it?"_ Kaori thought.

Before her mind could process another thought his arms were around her, and she was in his embrace. He held her tightly, almost as if he'd die if he let go.

She was stunned. Moments passed, until she apprehended that he was crying.

Slowly her arms came to embrace him as she rested her head against his shoulder. She could hear his broken heart beating inside his chest. He really needed her after all. They both needed each other.

Jiraiya on the other hand, had remembered the emotion he saw in her eyes. It was something that he thought died to him, and even though it was a glimmer, he was sure it was there.

It was love.

**-Ryokumaru-**

He sat awake in his bed. Minato had already fallen to sleep a while ago. His arm was numb, and he felt a stinging pain ever time his heart beat. With every thump of the muscle, Ryokumaru would wince, trying to get used to the pain. You can get rid of pain if you feel it enough, right? Or does the pain even go away. What if you just don't notice it anymore? Does pain ever really go away?

The boy held his breath to try and slow his heart beat, and even tried to meditate. Both were in vain. As much as he tried, there was just no human way to stop your own heart from beating. This was obvious, but in the situation Ryokumaru was in, it seemed like it should have been easy. When something hurts, you just stop the pain at the source. Then again, what if the source was also what was keeping you alive?

Besides the fact that Ryokumaru knew his internal monologue directly related to his current situation, it also reflected on his entire life, which is what he found to be ironic.

-Flashback-

The buildings around him were on fire. Sounds of battle could be heard in the background as his village and his family battled each other fiercely. Some of his family choose chose to betray their kin to side with the other clans, only to die the cruel fate of being backstabbed by those they had defected to. Others stayed to try and fight with illusions of defeating the entire village and becoming a legend among ninja. Most knew that the only way to walk about alive was to flee as fast as they could.

Ryokumaru stood looking at the tall figure in front of him. The man looked similar to how he did: tan skin, brown hair, dark eyes, and a muscular build. Unlike him, he wore armor and held a wakizashi in his right hand, and a mask in the other.

"Oniisan! We have to get out of here!" Ryokumaru pleaded, constantly looking around him. They could be under attack at any moment.

The man did not move.

"What are you doing, oniisan!?"

The man tapped on his forehead protector with his wakizashi. "Look closely at this symbol, otouto. I'm a ninja of Iwa…I can't leave..."

Ryokumaru was in tears. "But—but…they'll kill you if you stay! They've killed everyone else; you have to come with us!"

He shook his head, and held the mask out for his brother to see. Lit only by the lights of the fires around him, Ryokumaru saw the horrific image that was his brother's mask. It was ivory white, and looked like it had tusks and horns, the whole mask looking demonic. At the top was the symbol for Iwa, to show his village dedication even after it covered his headband.

"As long as I live behind this mask, otouto, I will not be killed. Those who wear masks do not have names, and I will not be a part of this Rokku clan any longer!" With that said he moved the mask closer to his face until half of it was covered. Ryokumaru was so trembling, he didn't know what to do.

"Run, little brother, run far from here, and never return! That is, if you want to live. Once I put this mask on you will be nothing to me, and I won't hold back destroying you. Now GO!!" He yelled. Ryokumaru did the only thing that he could do at that moment. He ran.

He ran far away.

From that day on his brother would have no face, only a mask.

From that day on Ryokumaru wouldn't have an older brother, only himself.

And it was the pain of that day that kept him alive. All life does go back to pain eventually, doesn't it?

-End Flash Back-

It still hurt, it hurt everyday. However, that same pain eventually became his power. He would use that to become a great ninja of Konoha, and eventually, he would find his brother. Yes, Ryokumaru vowed that he would one day reunite with his brother.

And on that day Ryokumaru would tear the mask off with every last ounce of might he had.

**-The Next Day-**

The sun shown in the hospital room the next morning, filling the white walls with a glow. Minato watched the sun through his window as it rose, as if it was setting fire to all that was dark, banishing away the night to begin everything anew.

Ryokumaru's parents arrived early, shortly followed by Jiraiya. Minato was surprised at how normal his team mate's family looked. Their features accompanied his, and they were very fit for their age, but they weren't ninja. Minato had thought that they would have been since Ryokumaru was part of a ninja clan. They scolded their son for being careless, but in the end were glad to see that he was okay. They even greeted Minato and hoped for him to get better soon, inviting him over sometime, which Minato considered. Jiraiya gave them some brief instructions about how to care for Ryokumaru for the time, which was mostly rest, no excitement, and heart-healthy food. Then they left.

After that the Jonin helped Minato sit up in his bed and get a brace around his leg cast so he could walk. After they signed out at the front desk, Jiraiya proceeded to walk with Minato back to his house.

"So, that must have hurt pretty badly, huh?" Jiraiya questioned, giving Minato a smile.

"No." Minato responded. He really wasn't in the mood to talk. Actually, he really wasn't in the mood for feelings.

"Not at all? You broke your shin in three different places and then had to run a mile, how could that not hurt?"

"The mission was completed. That's all that matters."

Jiraiya didn't push the subject any longer. There was something that he needed to ask this boy's parents when he got to his house.

Once they reached the apartment, Minato unlocked the door and stepped inside, Jiraiya following. It was an average house. As soon as they had taken a few steps inside, a girl came running around the corner. She had the same blonde hair and blue eyes Minato did, and wore a pink nightgown and slippers. She had bags under her eyes; she didn't seem like she got any sleep.

"MINATO!" she yelled, literally tackling him, tears in her eyes. "What happened! Why didn't you come home! Why are you hurt!" The questions continued without answer. Eventually he worked his way up. Something seemed off about the boy today.

"It was a mission. I'm going to go to my room, Sora-neechan." And he did just as he said. She was left without any answers, looking saddened by it.

"Maybe…I could be of some help explaining." Jiraiya interjected. He gave a warm smile and held out his hand. "I'm Ashikaga Jiraiya, Mina-chan's Jonin sensei."

"I'm Namikaze Sora, nice to meet you." She shook his hand.

Sora stared at him for a few moments before she realized she was in her pajamas. "Ahh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't expecting any guests. Please, please, take a seat in the living room while I go change."

And with that she rushed off down the hallway that contained hers and Minato's rooms. Jiraiya looked around somewhat. There were only two bedrooms, and few pictures in this house. Were there no parents here?

Jiraiya sat down

She came back about ten minutes later wearing shorts and a tank top, hair combed, and make up to cover her tired eyes. She took a seat across from the man.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Jiraiya-san. It appears our little Minato is asleep right now. Would you like some tea?"

She was definitely older then Minato, but younger then Jiraiya was. Whatever her age was, it seemed like she was the only care taker of his student. Didn't Sarutobi say that Minato only had a guardian?

"Nah, I'll be okay. I bet your waiting to know what happened though."

She nodded.

"Well, it's actually my fault that he got hurt. It was a simple D-Rank mission that I 'rigged' for them to battle a friend of mine's student. Basically it was just a stepping stone that I needed them to cross. None of the kids are seriously injured. Minato should be fine in about a week or so, and their ninja insurance covers all of the medical expenses." Jiraiya confirmed this statement with a smile.

"So he was at the hospital last night?"

This time Jiraiya nodded.

She sighed. "I thought he had been seriously hurt on his first mission…I didn't know that being a Genin would be so dangerous for him."

"_You don't know the half of it."_

"Yes, it can be. You do know that it is common for ninja to be seriously injured in the line of duty, right?"

"I know…I just never pictured Minato getting hurt is all."

"Would you mind if I ask you a few questions about Mina-chan?" Jiraiya changed the subject. There were some things he was curious about.

"Not at all."

Jiraiya thought carefully about how to go about asking his questions. "I've never heard of a Namikaze ninja clan…" Jiraiya already knew that there was no clan, but it was the best way to inquire as to the origins of Minato.

"There isn't one. Both me and Minato immigrated from Hikyo-shi years ago." She looked at her hands as she nervously held them together.

"And you came all the way from the capitol just for Minato to become a ninja then?"

She shook her head signaling no. "Actually, it was me who wanted to become a ninja…but I was failed by my Jonin instructor along with my would-be-team. I was told…" She swallowed hard. "That I could never be a shinobi, so I've been working as a waitress. Minato…he, well, after I failed he joined the academy. I didn't want him to…but, it looks like he's done what I couldn't."

"He's on the road to becoming a great ninja. What did your parent's think about you and Minato becoming ninja?"

"Well…" She looked up again. Jiraiya's face was completely serious. "They both hate the idea. My mom's an actor, and my dad's in politics so…"

Jiraiya snapped his fingers. "I knew I recognized the Namikaze name, I think I've seen one of your mom's movies. I guess I was thinking too deep into the ninja world, when it would have been obvious if I didn't. You and Minato are really far from home, not to mention pursuing completely different careers then your parents."

"It isn't like we had much of a choice. I was always fascinated by ninja when I was little: my mother and father hired them often for escort services. Towards the end of their relationship, they even hired them to spy on each other."

"So…you left because of a divorce. I'm sad to hear that."

She shook her head. "No, I left because of Minato's condition."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.

Sora sighed. "I haven't told anyone, so could you promise me that you won't say anything to anyone else?"

"Of course, I'm always in the best interest of my students. I didn't know Minato was sick or anything, he seems fine—"

"—he always seems fine." She interrupted. "I'm sorry, Jiraiya-san. Look, Minato doesn't have any physical problems. It's…" she paused to think about how she was going to explain this. This was the boy's sensei, he should know about this. "When Minato was born, he didn't cry. Even when he was a baby, he would never cry, at all."

"That's uncommon, but certainly nothing serious."

"It isn't just that. When Minato was little he never showed any compassion at all. He was never afraid of the dark, never scared to be alone. It took us a long time to figure it out, and we even had a doctor confirm it."

There was a silence.

"Minato wasn't born with emotions. Something—something in his brain is naturally turned off, I think that's how the doctor put it. He said that Minato doesn't feel fear, happiness, sadness, anything. He's completely neutral; completely logical."

Jiraiya was confused. "That can't be true, every time I've seen Minato he's always had, feelings, emotions, whatever."

"That's a mask." She replied quickly. "Minato may not have emotions, but he knows that others do. He…he puts on that mask to make himself blend in, but deep down…" Jiraiya noticed that tears were forming in her eyes. "…deep down he feels nothing."

This shocked Jiraiya. He thought about what he had observed from the child before. It had seemed like he was just serious, but maybe what Sora said had some merit to it.

"Maybe…he developed emotions as he got older…"

Sora shook her head. "The only thing that has happened as he has gotten older is he's become better at wearing the mask. It's hard to see it, and it's much less often, but the old Minato does still come out…the hollow Minato…" She wiped her eyes with her hand.

Jiraiya processed this for a moment. "And, there's nothing that can be done about this?"

"The doctor said that it wasn't impossible for Minato to develop emotions, just that he would have to want it. Right now…Minato doesn't have any need for emotions, and he won't sense one. The doctor said that if he met the right person…that there would be someone special in his heart that Minato would change for…"

A few tears rolled down her cheek. The Jonin fought back the urge to comfort her, or tell her to stop talking.

"…and when I brought Minato here with me, I thought that I was that special person for him. I've—I've learn though that—that I'm not that person."

She was now in a full try. She excused herself to the bathroom, and Jiraiya thanked her for her time and announced he was leaving. He exited the apartment, making sure to close the door behind him.

As he started down the street, he went to thinking. Minato was a lot more like himself then he thought the boy was.

"_He's the perfect ninja, no emotions, nothing to get in the way of him and his mission. But…with that he's sacrificed all of his humanity. What's more important, being the perfect ninja or being human, no matter how imperfect humans are…"_

Jiraiya sighed.

"Well, there is a bright side. I'm not going to have to take them for lunch today."

Remembering his next destination, Jiraiya made his way to the Otonashi residence. Close to the house he saw Katsu. The boy looked rugged today, and carried two large bags with him. Jiraiya decided to watch him.

**-Katsu-**

He did it. He finally left his mom. No more of those awful drugs, alcohol, and men. He was free. Except there was a problem.

He didn't know where to go.

Looking for a place to rent an apartment was the best idea, but if he couldn't get one, Katsu might have to sleep someplace unpleasant, like the woods.

His sword let off a vivid aura that only Katsu could feel. It wanted to taste his mother's blood, again. He almost let it too, but the better part of him held back from venting the sword's rage, and his own.

Katsu winced in pain as the heavy bag was too much for him to carry over his shoulder. He dropped it, and the arm immediately went to his broken ribs. He wasn't supposed to carry heavy things…maybe he should have listened.

Behind him a man came over and picked up his bag. Katsu looked up and saw Jiraiya. His face was serious; he looked as if he had just heard very unpleasant news.

Katsu didn't say anything, and let the man help him carry one of his bags. They continued walking in no particular direction for a few more minutes.

"You're running away from home, right?" Jiraiya finally asked.

"Yeah…"

"And…you have no idea where you're going, right?"

"…"

"Right?" Jiraiya asked again.

"…yeah."

"Alright. You can come and stay with me, but only because you asked so nicely." Jiraiya chuckled. Katsu looked up at him bewildered.

Jiraiya shrugged, and gave a wide grin. "What? I have a big house and no one to fill it up. I could use the company."

Katsu just stood in one spot thinking about what had just transpired, while Jiraiya continued to his house. Once the boy snapped out of it, he jogged as well as he could to catch up with his sensei.

* * *

**-End Chapter Six-**

Even though I copped off the huge author's notes, I decided to keep the little "Jutsu Library" and "Team Profiles".

Preview – Chapter Seven: Cooking for Ninja

**-Jutsu Library-**

I've made up several techniques for this fic, and many of them I haven't introduced yet. I'm fuzzy on translations, but I use so many translators (about six) that I can't be too far off. Let me know if you see any problems. Jutsu are as follows.

-Henge no Jutsu-

_(Transformation Technique)_

E-Rank. Ninjutsu. Support. Intro Ch2.You transform into someone else. Potency of this really depends on the user. As a side note, the Sexy Jutsu variation has appeared in the Yondaime Gaiden, it just wasn't named.

-Bushin no Jutsu-

_(Clone Technique)_

E-Rank. Ninjutus. Support. Intro Ch2. You make illusion replicas of yourself. They suck, lots, but can be used to confuse the opponent in large numbers. In general, it's useful if you have numerous people use the technique as a swarming/confusion tactic. Useless if they have a dojutsu though.

-Shunshin no Jutsu-

_(Body Flicker)_

D-Rank. Ninjutsu. Support. Intro Ch2. "Wheeeeeeeeeeeee I move fast!"

-Nozokimi no Jutsu-

_(Peeping Tom Technique)_

Ninjutsu. Rank and Type Unknown. Intro Ch4. Jiraiya's trump card when he's about to be caught. No one knows how it works…

-Hiden Taijutsu: Jikoku Make-

_(Secret Taijutsu: Instant Defeat)_

E-Rank. Taijutsu. Offensive. Basically, this is a swift punch to the balls. Nice name though.

-Kageshihai-

_(Shadow Control)_

D-Rank. Ninjutsu. Support. Even though the jutsu has a very low rank, it's rare to know. The technique makes the shadows in the area appear twisted and distorted, but nothing else. It is, however, a prelude to several other shadow based techniques.

-Ankoku Yari-

_(Darkness Spear)_

D-Rank. Genjutsu. Offensive. Using this technique the target sees the user's shadows form a sort of weapon that attacks them, all attempts to dodge being useless. By itself, the jutsu can't harm you, and has a low duration.

-Riaru Ankoku Yari-

_(True Darkness Spear)_

D-Rank. Ninjutsu. Offensive. Shadows actually manifest this time, attacking their target. Damage wise, it's about the same as being stuck with a kunai, which is one of the reasons it has such a low rank. The pros for this jutsu are if used in conjunction with its genjutsu counterpart Ankoku Yari, the target may not dodge it, or it may at least take longer for them to realize that it isn't genjutsu.

-Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu-

_(Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)_

C-Rank. Ninjutsu. Offensive. Breathing fire out of your mouth is a useful skill. Sort of. Either way, this is a basic Fire Release, so it's common among ninja with the Fire nature.

-Hien-

_(Flying Swallow)_

B-Rank. Taijutsu. Offensive. Here's a keeper. Using this, you make a weapon's blade extend, also making it sharper. It's a high rank since it takes a lot of chakra (you're constantly pushing spirit force into it), hard to find a weapon that can channel the chakra, but mostly because it's pure deadly. The only reason Katsu was able to use this is since he burst a large amount of chakra into his weapon, which just happened to be able to channel wind chakra effectively.

**-Team Ronin-**

Ashikaga Jiraiya – Age: 24. Gender: male. Rank: Jonin. Element: unknown. Jiraiya wears the Mask of Bliss. He plays himself off as a much simpler person then he really is, and shows the world the better side of him, even when he is sad on the inside. Jiraiya's history is unknown for the most part, but he's apparently grieving the death of his father, who he was close to. He was trained by the Sandaime Hokage, with Orochimaru and Tsunade as his team mates.

Otonashi Katsu – Age: 12. Gender: male. Rank: Genin. Element: wind. Katsu wears the Mask of Power. He likes to feel like he can control any given situation, even though that isn't always true. Deep down he hides insecurities. He has skeletons in his closet, somehow involving his mother, who is a former ninja. He always carries an odd sword that looks as if it is literally chained into its scabbard.

Namikaze Minato – Age: 12. Gender: male. Rank: Genin. Element: lightning. Minato wears the Mask of Life. He was born without emotions, and has never made attempts to develop them. Instead, he hides himself behind a persona that he created as he watches from within. But is the Minato on the outside really just a lie? He lives with his elder sister, Sora, since neither of his parents can coup with his condition. All things considered, he is unusually composed and analytical for his age. He also became a super-pervert.

Rokku Ryokumaru – Age: 12. Gender: male. Rank: Genin. Element: Earth. Ryokumaru wears the Mask of Ignorance. He plays like he is blunt and irrational as a form of protecting his inner self. He holds a great pain inside for the betrayal of his brother to his clan. Despite being a ninja clan, the Rokku family doesn't seem to have many ninja. Ryokumaru's goal is to restore his clan's glory someday, and in the process find his brother.


	7. Cooking for Ninja

**-Chapter Seven: Cooking for Ninja-**

Two weeks had passed. In those two long weeks, Minato grueled by continuing his studies with Jiraiya and his team. Since the three boys were all injured, they were denied physical training and forced to learn about the history of Konoha, ninja, and even origins of the modern kunai. Frequent visits to the hospital grew tiring, but necessary in order to recover quickly. Minato recovered the fastest, shortly followed by Katsu the next day. Ryokumaru was annoyed being the last given an "all clear."

Katsu slowly moved into his own issues. Minato and Ryokumaru had been informed that their dark haired companion was now living with Jiraiya. The boy seemed haggard and exhausted more often, as would be expected with Jiraiya's antics.

It was a windy Monday morning when Minato's plans had finally produced a devious idea. He had been working in secret for the past week, scheming in his bedroom with the lights out until everything finally clicked. The next morning he was sure to call and persuade both of his teammates to come over his house.

It was a quarter past eight when they arrived in unison. Minato smiled and welcomed them in. Ryokumaru looked as he normally did, but Katsu's hair was unusually unkept as of late. Minato made a mental note not to say anything about it. After they turned down Minato's offer for tea, the boys sat on the couch, Minato across them. The blonde boy opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted when Sora entered the room in the full waitress outfit: earrings, short skirt, and make up. For Minato, it wasn't anything unusual. Ryokumaru on the other hand, let his mouth hang open as he gaped at her.

"Minato? You didn't tell me you were going to have friends over!" She squealed as soon as she saw them, quickly introducing herself. Katsu politely gave his name with a smile. Ryokumaru started to drool, something Sora ignored.

"You sound so surprised." Minato responded sourly.

"Well, you've never invited anyone over before." She said, making her way to the door to slip her heals on.

Minato sighed. "We actually have a mission that we'll be going to later today, and this is just a quick prep." Ryokumaru and Katsu looked clueless.

"Just make sure you don't get hurt." She took the keys off the wall where they usually hung. "Got that Minato? Be very careful."

Minato nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Have a good day at work, Sora-neechan."

She waved before leaving. Katsu turned as to question Minato. Ryokumaru just leapt at him, knocking down the shocked blue eyed boy.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOUR SISTER WAS A BABE!?" He shrieked.

"I didn't know!" Minato said defensively. "Now would you get off of me!"

Ryokumaru was panting as he took his place back on the couch. Now Katsu's mouth hung open at his friend's outburst.

"How could you not know?" He continued. "Those perfect blonde locks, bright blue eyes, creamy smooth skin!" He sighed, love struck.

Katsu, on the couch next to Ryokumaru, scooted away from the boy with the crew cut. "Ryo-san…you just described Minato-san…"

"Ryo-kun…that's just weird."

"Damn-it, you both know I was talking about his sister!"

"Let's hope so…" Minato mumbled under his breath.

"Well Minato-san," Katsu said, changing the subject and crossing his arms, "What's this mission you were talking about?"

Minato's look of bemusement from Ryokumaru's outburst was replaced by a smile. Despite the normal facial expression was to represent being happy, Minato's was darkly twisted. Katsu wondered if he could make a smile that evil himself.

"Well, I've been working on a plan—"

"Yeah." Katsu urged him on.

"—and I'll need both of your help in doing it."

"So, it isn't an actual mission or anything?" Ryokumaru asked.

"Oh no, we should treat it with the same amount of importance that we do missions."

"So what is it?" Katsu continued to push, trying to get to the point Minato was trying to make and that dark smile as well.

"It all began when I read this book…in it was written things that completely changed my world." Minato seemed dazed as he talked. "It was a collection of the most brilliant men's thoughts and…hobbies." Minato had to search for a word. "I think it's time that I made my entry, and a grand entry I intend to make."

"And you need our help?" Katsu followed.

"That's what I was hoping for."

"What's the name of the book?" Ryokumaru raised his eyebrow, his eyes always semi-closed.

"Cooking for Ninja." Minato stated plainly.

"Cooking for Ninja?" Ryokumaru seemed unimpressed.

"Are we…going to put a recipe or something into the book?" Katsu asked.

"Nope, just information."

The two boys stared at Minato.

"What is this book about." Katsu asked, suddenly doubting that "Cooking" had much to do with it.

"Well…women."

"Women?" Ryokumaru wasn't sure what was going on.

"Greatest minds…collective thoughts and hobbies…changed your world…Minato-san! It's a perverted book!" Katsu accused.

"Not just any perverted book!" Minato rose and shouted quite suddenly. "_The_ perverted book! There is only one of its kind, and it's been written in by all of the Hokage! I want to take that book and put my entry in right next to the Hokage-sama's. Now are the two of you going to help me, or what!"

Katsu was…utterly shaken.

"_This book…what sort of powers could it possibly hold that it could do this to Minato-san's mind?"_ Katsu wondered.

As Minato sat back down, Ryokumaru was the first to break the silence. "What would I get out of it?"

Minato's look became evil again. He took out a black box, about the size of an average book, and motioned for Ryokumaru to come closer. The boy did so, as Katsu warily eyed the box, almost frightened at what could be inside.

"If you help me with this, Ryo-kun, I'll give you the contents of this box." Minato said, opening it just a crack. Ryokumaru bent over to catch a glimpse of what was inside, and instantly jerked back, on hand on her heart that felt as if it was about to explode, the other on his nose, trying to keep the blood from pouring out. It wasn't working too well.

Minato's grin reached monstrous, proportions.

"Is that…what I think it is!?"

"Probably better. They're Sora-neechans…and I don't think she'll notice them going missing."

"She wears skimpy things like that!!" Ryokumaru was starting to hyperventilate.

Minato nodded.

The narrow-eyed boy then dropped to his knees and bowed to Minato. "I'll do whatever you want, Minato-sama!"

The blonde then turned to Katsu, who really didn't want to know what compelled Ryokumaru into such submission.

"So…Katsu-kun. Your willing to help me, right?"

"Last time we tried something like this we barely got away with our lives."

"I've already corrected any errors in my plan. This isn't a spur of the moment; I know what I'm doing. Besides, I intend to make my entry and get away without ever being caught."

"I'm sure you _intend _to…but how do I know that it won't happen anyways. What exactly is this plan that you have?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

Minato leaned in and told the other two boys about what he had been working on all week. The more he talked, the more excited Ryokumaru seemed to get, and the more Katsu blushed.

"Minato-san! That's evil! That's vile! That's—that's—that's unspeakable!! I could never help in something like that!"

"Katsu-kun, you're the key to getting this work, I need your cooperation in this."

Katsu waved his arm as if striking at the comment, or entire notation. "No! I won't do it!"

"You aren't the least bit curious?"

"Not at all!"

"Well…that's odd." Minato said. His dark grin turned to a sly smirk. "Most boys would be interested. Are you sure you're…even into girls?"

This time, Ryokumaru backed away from Katsu.

"Of—of course I am!" Katsu blushed madly.

Minato let the silence linger a few moments after that comment. Then he crossed his arms and put on a strait face. "Prove it." He challenged.

Katsu was torn. It was horrible…but with his pride on the line, could he really say no? Maybe he was a little curious…

Katsu stopped himself as he found whatever virus Minato had obtained from reading that book, it was starting to contaminate him. He pointed his finger at the Genin. "Minato-san, you're a bad person!" was his accusation.

The boy smiled. "Thanks, I try."

Once everyone had had a minute to calm down, Minato began to dictate the first part of their battle plans. "Okay, the first thing we need to do is get our hands on that book. Now, the problem with that is the Hokage has it. Therefore, our first mission goal is to defeat the Hokage." Minato said it so calmly.

"Are you nuts!?" Ryokumaru protested. "He's like, the strongest ninja in the village!"

"_Like_?" Katsu questioned. "He _is_ the strongest ninja in the village. How do you intend on defeating a Hokage, Minato-san." Katsu said with a laugh.

Minato shrugged. "Are you kidding? We're three badass 12 year-olds. Taking down the Hokage'll be a piece of cake" Minato said it so nonchalantly, that the other two actually believed for a moment that it could work.

"What do we need to do?" Katsu said, still somewhat skeptical.

"Do you remember how you got onto team Ronin?"

Katsu paused while he thought back. Then it hit him, and his face went white and his eyes wide. "No." He said flat out. "I won't do it."

Minato scratched the back of his head. "It's that or I have to try out my Tentacle Monster Attack Technique…"

Katsu almost screamed as Ryokumaru started rolling on the floor with laughter. Minato didn't seem like he was kidding.

"Okay I'll do it!!"

Minato patted him on the shoulder. "I figured you'd see it my way. Now we should get going—" he motioned towards the black box, "—before those get dry."

"WHY MUST YOU TORTURE ME SO, MINATO!" Ryokumaru shouted, tears starting in his eyes.

**-Hokage Tower-**

Sarutobi was having a very good day. In fact, he was having such a good day, that he was even considering taking the entire day off.

The Hokage wasn't sure what happened to his luck after that. All he knew was that his door swung open, and he turned up to look. That's where he made the mistake. In front of him was a most beautiful woman, with long legs and flowing deep black hair. She was accompanied by dark, naughty looking eyes, and a rather large pair of breasts.

It's what she wore that really hit the top. Held around her thin waist was a black leather corset, the tight fabric pressing her breasts close together and high. Just a little bit below were the oh-so-small thong, and then her leather stockings that ended in long, high-heeled boots, held up by the straps on her garter-belt. Even her arms were encased in matching leather gloves.

There was no defense.

The woman seductively walked across the room while Sarutobi stared helplessly. He couldn't speak, he couldn't do anything, and she had a really pleasing smile too. Unfortunately the Hokage didn't look below the neck. She leaned forward once she got to his desk, and gave the old man a strong kiss, strait at the lips.

Knock out.

With that the Hokage's nose exploded with blood, spraying his papers. He fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Katsu put her hands on her hips and looked proudly at the Hokage she had just defeated. There were a million things completely demented about the situation, but it was best for the mind not to dwell on them.

She turned and saw something which was instantly a problem. Two older ninja were in the door way looking in, both stunned. All they saw was the Hokage lying on the floor in a pool of blood, not even paying attention to Katsu. Their eyes went wide as they started to run down the hall. Katsu's heart stopped as she knew that she was busted. One of the Jonin started to yell "assassin" but was interrupted.

"**Tentacle-Monster Attack Technique!" **

This time Katsu couldn't move. It was clearly Minato that had called out the jutsu. Her mind was quickly drowned with the screams of the two. It was a horrible cry for help, as if they'd seen a—well, a tentacle-monster.

"It stings!" Was all she heard before their screams were replaced with a sort of choking sound. Katsu wondered how _no one_ seemed to hear any of this. Maybe no one else could hear it. Maybe no one else could accept that they could hear it. Whatever it was, Minato came around the corner a few minutes later, transformed into a Jonin guard. Ryokumaru followed a few minutes later, sweat obviously around his forehead. With a puff of smoke, Minato was back to his normal/twisted self. He saw the body of the Hokage on the floor.

"Good job, Katsuko-chan."

"Do not call me that!" She said in a high pitch girly tone. It wasn't really that bad, though, since she was a girl.

Ryokumaru grinned evilly at her, going to close the door.

"Wow, I think you might have killed him, Katsuko-chan." Minato said, looking closer at the Hokage.

"He is pretty damn sexy…" Ryokumaru added with a shrug, also looking closer at the Hokage.

"Neither of you are helping! How much longer do I have to keep this henge up anyways!" She howled.

Minato thought. "Well…probably the rest of the day if you can maintain it, though, if you could do it permanently, that'd be good too, Katsuko-chan. I'd rather like to see a girl on Team Ronin."

"But…he looks like he's 18." Ryokumaru said.

"That's just right in my opinion." Minato said, taking a close look at Katsu—ko, the same way an artist would admire one of his drawings. "He fit into Sora-neechan's clothes perfectly too."

"I bet Sora-chan'd look better in it though." Ryokumaru said, now starting to drool.

"Who knows…I may have future work for you." Minato fed Ryokumaru's imagination, the boy now beyond "starting" to drool.

"Are you _positive_ that these actually belonged to Sora-san?" Katsuko questioned, looking into more detail at what she was wearing.

-Flashback-

Minato had to keep a straight face as the woman at the counter of the lingerie store gave him a horrible look, the same way you'd look at the devil if he was a five foot nothing blonde boy with blue eyes and an eerie smile.

-End Flashback-

"Of course" Minato answered. He'd be insulted if he wasn't at _least _a gold medal liar.

"So what about the bodies in the hallway?" Katsuko asked while impatiently tapping her foot. She promised to herself that one of these days she'd kill Minato. Definitely. He'd fast talked her so well that she wasn't even sure why we was still doing this.

"Those two won't wake up for quite some time. After they do, they might be a little insane…and anyone who sees them in the state that I left them in is likely to pass out."

"You're an evil little bastard, y'know." Katsuko said with a sneer.

Minato smiled. "Thanks. Now, for the next part of our plan. Katsuko-chan and I are going to have to move without you, Ryo-kun, so stay here and become Hokage."

"What! Become Hokage! That's insane!! I'd have to be the strongest ninja in the village and—"

"—I meant henge into him…" Minato sighed after cutting him off.

"Oh."

Ryokumaru quickly poofed into a replica of the Hokage and stuffed the body in a closet. The three quickly cleaned, or rather disposed off, the tell-tale papers on his desk.

"Right… you need to pass a law for us, Ryo-sama." Minato said with a glint in his eye at the boy-turned-old man. Ryokumaru got out a piece of paper and one of the Hokage's fountain pens, and started writing as Minato told him what to put down. After he was done, Minato took the paper and grinned, quickly doing his own henge into another Jonin.

The fake-Hokage stayed behind as Katsuko and Minato began their way out. "Now," the blonde continued with the plan, "we need to get you a nurse's outfit…" He eyed the girl as if envisioning it on her. Katsuko felt cold inside.

**-Masami-**

The girl was in the waiting room at the hospital. She dressed as she normally did, but now sported long sleeves since it was nearing winter. Sitting next to her was her best friend and teammate, Hyuuga Hiroko.

The other girl's hair was dark, but had a blue-ish tint to it. Unlike Masami, her hair was short, cut almost like a boy's. She wore guy's cargo pants with average sneakers and a plain blue hoodie that matched her eyes. Though she was sitting down and it couldn't be seen, Masami knew that the words "I can still see you" were on the back of it. To further contrast things, Masami's eyes were dark, while the Hyuuga girl's were white with no pupil at all.

The two dressed completely opposite, and at first, had been arch rivals. However, that seemed to slowly diminish over the years, and somewhere along the line, they became friends. It actually shocked both of them, but they learned to live with it.

"So isn't your Uchiha Autumn Festival today, Masami?" Hiroko asked, giving a slight yawn. Masami could tell the girl was nervous at being in the hospital. There were plenty other kunoichi there as well. It was a peculiar reason that they had to show up as well.

Masami shook her head. "No, it is tomorrow. I still have to look for a date as well…" Masami sighed.

"Why…don't you go and ask Nemar-kun?" Hiroko teased.

Masami started to blush and turned away, crossing her arms. "You know what he'd say!"

Hiroko shrugged. "Well, it's about time _you_ learned that. You've only been asking him out to those stupid festivals for years now…and how many times has he said yes? I lost track." She said sarcastically.

The Uchiha turned to look at her friend again. While Masami sat straight up nicely, Hiroko somewhat slouched and kept her legs wide open, sitting completely like a guy would. "You're such a tom-boy, did you know that?"

The Hyuuga chuckled. "You're just mad 'cause he won't ever go on a date with you. Face it, Nemar-kun is just out of your league."

"Nemar-kun is just shy!" Masami said defensively.

Hiroko shrugged again. "Whatever. Hey, have you wondered about why we're here?"

"We're here because the respected Hokage-sama ordered all available kunoichi for a physical examination today."

Hiroko rolled her eyes. "Physical examination,' yeah right. Something here isn't like it should be…" She glanced over at the nurse who signed them in.

"Something just isn't right about that girl. She's so…sexy I guess. I mean, just look at her, dark hair, dark eyes, long legs—"

"I have all of those…" Masami grumbled.

"—ample cleavage…"

The Uchiha crossed her arms again, looking more annoyed.

"…maybe that's why Nemar-kun doesn't like you." Hiroko continued to bother her.

"Breast size has nothing to do with a woman's worth!" Masami boldly stated. "Any decent and good man will easily see the woman inside and value her for that!"

"So what you're trying to say is…Nemar-kun doesn't like who you are inside? That or he doesn't fall under the category of 'decent and good man."

Masami's mood was completely ruined. "Oh just shut it."

**-Jiraiya-**

The white haired man was lounging very peacefully on the couch when Kaori barged into the house. Once she found him in the living room she took a seat on the far side of the couch and let him have a minute of silence before she decided to start talking.

"Hey, just coming by to make sure you remembered our date tomorrow. Also, _I'm_ going to dress you to make sure you do it right."

Jiraiya decided not to argue with that one. While nibbling at the inside of his mouth, he gave her a question. "Why aren't you at the hospital for those kunoichi check ups. I saw them posted all over town."

"Ehh, I don't know, something just really smelled fishy about the whole thing." She shrugged.

"It's a gynecology appointment, of course it smells fishy."

There was a long pause.

The next thing Jiraiya knew was that Kaori was towering over him like a grim reaper. A very sexy grim reaper, but still a grim reaper. She was obviously not pleased by his comment.

"Any last words?" She asked darkly.

"I blame the Y-Chromosome…"

**-Konohagakure Hospital-**

It was a simple procedure really. It had taken him no time at all to spread the copies of the faux-Hokage statement all over town. After that he and Katsuko simply mugged the first female nurse and female doctor they saw. After stealing their clothes and stuffing them away to sleep peacefully, Katsuko handled the formal parts at the front desk, and Minato had to pretend to be the doctor. That part was easy. The part that wasn't easy was keeping himself calm and composed, as well as acting like a woman. He wasn't sure how Katsu managed Katsuko so well…but it was weird for Minato.

Unfortunately, Minato drew some unwanted attention. When henged into a woman, he looked a lot like an older version of his sister, he observed, who happen to look a lot like his mother, who happened to be an actress. Minato had at least ten people ask if they've seen him before. In addition high heels were a pain. Minato fell flat on his face every few steps, something a seemingly thirty-odd year old woman shouldn't be doing.

Lastly, he had to itch at himself in a private area quite often when no one was looking. The undergarments that he stole off the doctor, which he didn't feel the least ashamed about doing, were tight, and he did not understand how women could stand it. He discovered there that he had an absolute love for boxers.

Examining the girls wasn't too bad. Katsuko had talked Minato out of hidden cameras as the last minute, so now Minato merely did trivial stuff like weight, height, heart rate, reflexes, vision, ect. He scribbled down all of these quickly, and only really paid attention to the things that he was going to record in the book. Name, chest size, and—err—natural hair color.

At first he got a lot of strange looks, as if he was doing something out of order. Then he learned that he had to make idle conversation. After the first dozen or so patients, Minato had mastered the skill of being a doctor. In fact, he was so good, that no one even had the slightest hint that he wasn't who he said he was. This could possibly be due to the fact that he read every medical book he could check out at the library during his week of planning. He wanted to make sure he could take up the role without error. So far, it worked.

The patient that Minato just finished with left, and he quickly scribbled down some things in the perv-book before hiding it and asking for his next patient. The older blonde woman who Minato currently was gulped as Uchiha Masami entered the room. Maybe some of the slight panic he was feeling towards the girl who had kicked his ass on his first mission was showing, because, she eyed him oddly. He had on tested her reflexes when he made his grave mistake in his master plan.

He gave her a vision test.

At first, she read the letters on the wall like any normal person would, but then looked at the picture next to them. They were just blots and dots and squiggles all over a card, and Minato had thought they were to test being color blind. He realized that he was completely wrong. It was a Sharingan accuracy test, designed to see how well the strange designs could be inprinted in the Sharingan-user's brain. Maybe Minato hadn't known what it was since Uchiha are only in Konoha, which is the only place a test like this would be found, thus not making it into the medical books Minato had so desperately studied. She glanced at the test once her Sharingan, and then took a quick look at him. She seemed to double-take, and her red eyes went wide. Minato immediately saw his mistake. Her Sharingan had seen through his ninjutsu.

She screamed.

The next thing he knew there was another girl at the door, a girl with blue hair and white eyes. She looked at Minato, and some sort of understanding seemed to go by both girls without a word. The next thing he knew, Minato was breaking out of the window, ending his henge, and grasping the book in his hands tightly. He started to run down the streets, but the tom-boy-ish girl yelled out the window. "That's not a doctor, it's just some boy!!"

Minato froze. He was more or less surrounded by patients that were on their way out.

"Uhh…you're all healthy?"

The twelve year old boy wasn't sure what happened next, besides his life flashing before his eyes.

**-Ryokumaru-**

The henge-Hokage sat at his desk, eyes red and mind aggravated. Tsunade, a blonde medical ninja who just got back from the hospital, sat in front of him. Apparently she was one of the Hokage's old students. Apparently she liked to come and talk about her life and other assorted tidbits. Apparently…it was taking hours, and he was expected to just sit and listen. He was so delirious that he didn't even notice the angry mob outside the tower until they had already entered it and smashed into his office. They all consisted of kunoich, and dropped down a boy in the middle of the room. They looked…really pissed.

Ryokumaru didn't even recognize the boy as Minato at first. He looked like…a bruise. Literally. His arms were limp and Ryokumaru didn't see much of his normal colored skin. Ryokumaru was about to think of something to say to get him out of this mess, but that didn't work out.

When the angry ninja mob burst his door open, they also rocked the room. When that happened, the half-naked body of the real Hokage feel from it's location in the closet. The fall seemed to rouse the old man. The mob, which was spilled out into the halls outside as well, and Tsunade all turned to look at Ryokumaru at the same time. There was a really, really painful silence.

"You mean…I just told my life secrets to…" Tsunade said slowly, looking at Ryokumaru.

There was a puff of smoke, and he was just a boy in an oversized Hokage outfit.

"Um…hi?"

**-Katsu-**

Even though the shape was merely a henge, Katsu slowly felt that he wasn't really alone. He had the sudden urge to go shopping, and he loved it. He bough outfit after outfit, shoe after shoe, and things that, should he have been a boy, wouldn't have known the purpose for. It was almost as if something deep inside of him was drawn up, and was acting on its own accord. He sure did maintain the jutsu for a long time.

Most curiously, when the Sharingan wielding girl examined him, black wheels spinning in her eyes, she disregarded him, though Minato was caught. It felt like he was just watching his body shop, buying a…well, Katsu didn't know what was in the box. He was fairly sure that he didn't want to know.

The longer it went on, the less Katsu seemed to have to do, and the more he became like a spectator. Even though something had seemingly pushed him to the far regions of his mind, Katsu didn't care much. He had a lot of stress lately, and it was a strangely peaceful feeling.

Meanwhile, whatever was sharing a body with Katsu was getting ready to take up extended residence.

**-Hokage Tower-**

Both boys were savagely beaten by the time the Hokage had managed to push the mob out of his office and duct tape his door back to the wall. He couldn't get out of his room, but it let everyone else know that he didn't want to be disturbed.

Sarutobi had finished putting on his clothes again. The Hokage found out from the boys what had happened, and ordered them to give him the book. Though these two boys were found out, he wasn't sure what happened to the raven-haired vixen. He just kept that quiet though.

"So…let me get this strait. First you attacked two of my guards, injured them in ways that I really don't want to think about, then masqueraded as me and a doctor, did physical examinations on almost a quarter of Konoha's women, and recorded several…interesting facts in Cooking for Ninja."

Ryokumaru and Minato both looked at each other and answered together. "Yup."

Sarutobi slowly opened the book, skipping past the Shodai, Nidaime, and his own entries, to where young Minato had made his. It was quite large, and…impressive.

The Hokage's eyes suddenly shot open and he turned red. "_That's _Tsunade's natural hair color!!"

The two boys then laughed at the Hokage who cleared his throat and placed the book back in his desk where it belonged. It's a good thing that the mob didn't notice it…or else he might have to be explaining himself.

"Well, I have a huge amount of people who want me to kill the two of you by fire."

The boys looked frightened.

"However…in light of other circumstances, I have a different punishment." Sarutobi grinned evilly.

"You mean…in light of the fact that you like my work!" Minato accused.

The Hokage cleared his throat again. "Err, like I was saying. Instead of being put to the death…the two of you must—"

Sweat started to form on both of their faces.

"—carve my face into that cliff." The Hokage said crossing his arms.

The two boys sweat dropped and looked out the window. The faces of the Shodai and Nidaime were clearly depicted…

"Are you kidding? Do you know how long that would take!!" Ryokumaru pleaded.

Sarutobi shrugged. "I could just turn you over to the women…"

"We'll do it!" Minato quickly interrupted his friend who was about to protest.

"Actually..." Ryokumaru interupted. "I choose death by fire."

Minato gave him a piercing glare. Ryokumaru succumbed to Minato's silent beckoning. "Oh fine, I'll do it."

They quickly untapped Sarutobi's door and left to get a head start.

The Hokage relaxed in his seat.

"_That boy…Namikaze Minato. I haven't seen something like that pulled since I was making my own entry into Cooking for Ninja. I wonder…" _

* * *

**-End Chapter Seven-**

Preview – Chapter Eight: Sins of the Past

**-Jutsu Library-**

-Tentacle Monster Attack Technique-

Type, Rank, and Usage are all unknown. The jutsu is probably some sort of summoning…and whatever it does it's probably horrible. Let's hope that we never have to find out the true extent of its power…


	8. Sins of the Past

**Edit: **Here once stood the biggest damn author's note you've probably ever seen. Except it wasn't a note, it was bitching. Someone flamed me and then threatened to beat me up if I flamed him back. So I gave him my home address...and still haven't had him show up at my door. Whatever, it was stupid. It's fine if you don't like my story, but please, make it intelligent.

* * *

Three boys sat in a booth at a small-time diner. The good thing about small-time diners is that they can't pull in people with brilliant ads, so they have to use superior cooking and hospitality to get business. They also provided ample, well prepared food, a calm and relaxing atmosphere, and the familiar faces of other usual.

The well prepared food especially appealed to Chozo. He sat on the inside of the booth watching his two teammates dual in shogi. They had been going for over an hour and a half, and neither was gaining much of an advantage. Luckily, the cute and plump waitress kept him eating, and he slowly grew interested in their deadlock.

Shikaku rested his elbows on the table with his fingers together, evaluating the board in front of him. Across from him the blonde Inoichi, who sipped on iced-tea. Only a few pieces had been taken so far. Shikaku having lost two pawns and a knight, and Inoichi having lost three pawns and a bishop. Technically, Shikaku would be concidered winning, but Inoichi's rush to take his forward-knight disturbed him. The knight was Shikaku's favorite piece, as it had a powerful movement structure. Now the boy was trying to lock down Shikaku's remaining knight. If he did so, he would be in a bad position to secure his victory. Inoichi believed in using his queen to its fullest potential, and without any knights, he would surely push Shikaku into checkmate. The pawns and the bishop had all been sacrifices to take that single knight. That alone showed that Shikaku was playing into Inoichi's game. The blonde's pieces almost had Shikaku's knight cornered, until Shikaku carefully positioned a rook and bishop to safe guard it. It was risky, but all that he could do. Inoichi might even be willing to lose a piece or six as long as he could finish off the remaining knight. Shikaku definitely had to make sure that it would be too much trouble. Otherwise he was toast.

Chozo watched the game on the table, but knew that there was a whole other level below it. Shikaku was extremely bright, and Inoichi was the prodegy Yamanaka child of Konoha. Even though they agreed not to use any powers, Inoichi was constantly grazing the edges of Shikaku's mind to try and intercept his plans, while Shikaku created dozens of false ideas to keep on the surface while he slowly perfected his moves in the depths of his mind. With this constant mental battle raging, the two were almost perfectly matched. Normally Shikaku had a very slight edge, but this time it seemed that Inoichi had the advantage.

Chozo yawned. They did this everyday. The two of them would play shogi, and he would eat and watch them. Idle conversation always slipped into the meeting, and they would all have fun just passing innocent gossip to each other. They had all been best of friends ever since they became a team, and this unoffical daily meeting in the diner was just something they always did as a matter of habit as well as enjoyment. Missions and training took up most of their day, and by the end of it, they were all quite relieved to be back in the calm environment. Chozo would spend all day just slowly deciding what he was going to eat, as Inoichi would meditate whenever he had a chance for hopes of penetrating Shikaku's mental barrier, who spent the day thinking up new shogi strategies. It was truly spendid.

Yes, life was indeed good.

**-Chapter 8: Sins of the Past-**

Sarutobi walked the streets humming one morning. A sweet breeze was blowing that kept the air fresh, and the sun warmed the Hidden Village in the Leaves. The kind old man was greeted by every other person that he met, and he longed to shed his hat and relax in the park with his wife. Sadly, being Hokage meant responsibilities, one of them being disciplining those who deserved it. Many of the victims of the fraud three weeks ago pushed "death by fire" for the two boys. Sarutobi only got them off by making them sweat on the rock of the cliff, where the breeze doesn't touch and the sun is constantly blazing down. This way, all of the victims could see the boys suffer. They still wanted death by fire afterwards, but Sarutobi hoped that the time they finished the women would have forgotten about the whole thing; at least their rage. Carving his face would take a couple years.

The Hokage looked up to see Namikaze Minato and Rokku Ryokumaru supported by ropes and banging in the outlines of Sarutobi's face with assorted tools. The man took a puff of his pipe and looked at the row of faces that he would join. The Shodaime Hokage, followed by his teacher, the Nidaime Hokage, then by a semi-carved sculpture of Sarutobi's face, and lastly the near-finished depiction of Minato's face. Yup, everything was going just—

"What the _hell_ are you carving in there MINATO!! You can't put _your_ face in the mountain!!" Sarutobi suddenly yelled, hundreds of feet away from the two working boys. Most of Konoha probably heard him though, and Minato flinched. The Sandaime Hokage stormed his way to the bottom of the cliff.

"What's the big idea here!?" He yelled once he got there.

Minato and Ryokumaru reluctantly lowered themselves in decent talking distance, but purposely left themselves at least fifty feet above the angry man.

"But…I figured that I'd just get started on my face for when I become Hokage."

Ryokumaru started laughing as the deceptive blonde feigned innocence.

Sarutobi pointed a finger accusingly and still yelled at the top of his breath, "You're never going to be Hokage you little pervert!!"

Minato shrugged, "Every little pervert has to grow into a big pervert. You turned out fine, Hokage-sama."

The veins on the Hokage's forehead were now bulging. He was seriously considering and even liking the idea of death-by-fire.

**-Katsu-**

The boy was haunted. Day and night for the past three weeks, she was there. She was always there!

He sat in his bed, shivering. The voice was overpowering. It was sweet, kind. _Girly_.

And it was coming from inside of him.

"_What's wrong, cutie, you know that you want to transform into me. Keeping that lil' old body of yours all to yourself is just plain selfish, don't ya' think?"_

"_No! I don't think so at all! It's _my_ body so _I_ can do what _I_ want with it! Besides, I don't 'transform' into you, it's just a henge! You don't exist! You're only a figment of Minato-san's schemes!"_

"_Now that's just hurting my feelings there, cutie. You know I'm just as real as you are. Blaming it on your lil' friends isn't going to make me go away, y'know."_

"BUT YOU AREN'T REAL!"

Katsu yelled this out loud without even thinking about it. It was only natural that Jiraiya would open the door to see if anything was wrong.

The dark-haired boy turned pale as he saw his house-mate.

Jiraiya looked around suspiciously. The walls were painted from their original white to a frizzy pink, the bed was decorated with sheets that were covered in little hearts, and boxes upon boxes of clothes and shoes left only a small walkway to the bed. Jiraiya entered cautiously.

"Um…Kat-chan, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I was just…talking to myself.

Jiraiya slowly approached, trying to avoid the women's clothing. Normally he would be pleased to see thongs and thin bras in his house…just not when he was living with another guy.

"So what, you're not real?"

"Huh?" Katsu looked confused until he realized how what he said had sounded, and how disfigured his reply made his statement. "Well…not in the metaphorical sense."

Jiraiya moved a plush bunny to the side so he could sit on the bed next to Katsu. He put one hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Is there something that we should talk about?" Jiraiya said in a sincere, older brother voice.

"Damnit, I'm not gay!!" He screamed.

"_You've been saying that a lot lately, y'know?"_

**-The Next Day-**

Team Ronin was in an academy school room, as they normally would for morning studies. Minato and Ryokumaru looked tired, and Katsu's eyes were dark. He seemed like he didn't get enough sleep. Jiraiya on the other hand was all too full of energy.

"Today I have a couple announcements." Jiraiya said as he took a seat at the front.

The three young ones raised eyebrows simultaiously.

"First, I think that it's almost time that Team Ronin started taking on C-Rank mission. We have plenty of D-Rank missions under our belt, and the group of you are above average as it is. Mostly because C-Rank missions pay better and I'm tired of chump-change." Jiraiya stuck out his tongue at this last bit.

"Yes!" Ryokumaru threw his fist in the air. "C-Rank! That's what I'm talking about!"

Even the tired Katsu managed a smile. "It would be more challenging."

Minato nodded. "I admit it sounds interesting."

"That's not all, Team," Jiraiya continued, "before we do that, I we need to fine tune several things. First of all, a team has to have different ways to work together, and most Genin can manage a C-Rank jutsu or two." He looked over at the brunette. "Ryo-chan, I'm confident that you can survive without anything higher then a D-Rank jutsu, so you're not gonna learn any."

"Damnit!" Ryokumaru crossed his arms in resentment.

"But Mina-chan and Kat-chan are a totally different story. From watching the three of you spare and fight, I've seen how you fight and how you all need to specialize to work as a good team. Ryo-chan, instead of ninjutsu and genjutsu, you're going to need to practice in more taijutsu and weaponry. The better you are with a fist and kunai, the better off the team's going to be."

Ryokumaru looked blankly at him.

"There are some pretty cool taijutsu moves, Ryo-chan."

The boy shrugged. "I've always sort of been more motivated to kick ass up close anyways.

"Right then," Jiraiya continued once more, "You're going to meet up with Akio in his class room when we're done with lessons today. I've already talked with him, and he's agreed to personally train you in the basics again, as well as taijutsu."

"I get to work with Akio-sensei! That's cool!" he paused. "But why do I have to relearn the basics?"

The Jonin sighed. "Basics are the foundation of being a ninja. Without them, anything you put on top will crumble. Your foundation is crap, Ryo-chan, and I don't want you to crumble in the middle of a battle. Got it?"

Ryokumaru looked down. "Yeah."

Jiraiya looked over to Katsu and Minato. "You two serve different purposes. Katsu, I know you already have a B-Rank taijutsu, but there is something else that would do you better. I chatted with the Hokage, and he approved that you learn another B-Rank technique, but this time ninjutsu. Another one of my friends is going to personally teach you how to use it."

Katsu nodded.

"And you Mina-chan, you're with me. I have faith in Ryo-chan's Earth-element, and Kat-chan somehow worked his Wind-element into his fighting style already. You on the other hand, are a zero. The two of us are going to practice your Lightning-element Chakra, and then we're going to make a jutsu out of it."

Minato raised an eyebrow. "You have Lightning-element Chakra too, Jiraiya-sensei?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Nope, but an old friend of mine does. He actually invented the technique that we're going to teach you, so he'll take over halfway through." Jiraiya paused. "If I can convince him to help you, that is."

"So we're all going to be learning independently…" Katsu said in the open.

"That's right, you all will for a while. But don't remember, you're still Team Ronin, no matter what happens." Jiraiya gave the group a thumbs up. He got smiles all around.

"What's for today, Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato asked curiously.

"Last time you all got your ass beat, by a _girl_ might I add, it was by one with Sharingan. I figured it was time that you learned more about it…so I called in another girl with Sharingan."

At this Jiraiya motioned towards the door and Kaori stepped in. The boy's mouths dropped. Her elegant black hair, full breasts, long legs, and perfect figure, but mostly the full breasts, was almost too much for the twelve year old boys to take in.

"This is my friend, Kaori-chan." Jiraiya said proudly.

Ryokumaru, mouth still wide open, talked first. "Is she your _girlfriend_ Jiraiya-sensei?"

"NO!!" The two Jonin yelled. A million excuses about why they would never date or look or conceder or give the time of day to the other began to roll from their mouths. The twelve year old boys could take this in, and they all snickered. Minato a little more then Ryokumaru and Katsu.

The hysteria, awkwardness, and introductions shortly passed as Jiraiya announced it was time they got down to business. The snow-haired Jonin took a seat as Kaori took the stage. A mask covered the lower part of her face, even though the features could still somewhat be made out, and she wore sunglasses indoors.

"How much do the three of you boys know about the Sharingan?" She calmly asked them.

"It hurts…real bad." Was Ryokumaru's swift answer as his hand automatically went to cover his heart.

"_Really badly' he should have said…" _Minato thought.

"It's an upper level kekkei genkai dojutsu that turns the user's eyes red and bestows greater abilities." Katsu told Kaori.

She looked at Minato who had to think before he answered. "What Katsu-kun said, but also able to detect what someone is going to do before they do it, Kaori-sensei"

Kaori nodded. "You're all pretty much right, but it gets a little more complex then that. I'll start with the basics. Sharingan is indeed a kekkei genkai, but it isn't necessarily upper level. Actually, there are several levels of Sharingan, and the lowest isn't nearly as effective as some of the kekkei genkai out there.

"You also can not even call Sharingan 'powerful.' I've seen kekkei genkai that give the user the ability to manipulate metal to their own will, use their own flesh and bone as weapons, and even _cheat death_." She said the last bit with an incentive to scare. It worked. She now had their complete and undivided attention. Even Jiraiya had his ears open.

"What the Sharingan is, if anything, is versatile and useful. Even though it is a dojutsu, Sharingan's strength lies in the brain, not the eyes. With every level of Sharingan achieved, 'limiters' as you could call them, are broken. Breaking these limiters allows the brain to percieve things faster, which is the truth behind the Sharingan's speed. We'll get to this more later.

"Most will simply pass off the Sharingan as a deviation of the Byakugan, also a dojutsu. This isn't exactly true, but it's a lot easier to try and explain. What I'm about to tell the three of you is very old Uchiha history, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't go around spreading it, understand?"

Katsu and Minato nodded. Ryokumaru pointed at Jiraiya. "You only said 'three of us.' What about Jiraiya-sensei?"

Kaori casually passed it off. "He already knows. Jiraiya-chan has been involved with the Uchiha clan for a long time as it is."

Ryokumaru looked oddly at his teacher. "Jiraiya-sensei is accepted by the _Uchiha_ clan?!"

Turning briefly to face him, Kaori's hand went to her hip. "Actually, quite the opposite. They just haven't been able to get rid of him." Jiraiya gave a big-eyed innocent look.

"As I was saying," she continued, "The Uchiha clan's origins actually predate them becoming part of Konoha. It is true that they were there for the founding, but in the earliest days of Shinobi history there weren't ninja villages, merely dozens of rival ninja clans. It wasn't until forty or fifty years ago that the old ways of doing things was abolished. Anyways, Sharingan was a genetic disorder at the time, and eventually, people learned how to mix it with Chakra to use the powers they can today. The original Uchiha clan you could say weren't even ninja, only Sharingan-users. Actually, most of the modern day ninja clans weren't ninja when they were formed.

"Once a gathering of all those with the 'Devil Eye' were gathered, there were disputes about how it would be lead. This lead to a rift in the Sharingan-users. Two rival clans emerged. One of them was the ancestors of the Uchiha clan, the other's name has been lost in history."

"What a second," Katsu interrupted, "Are you saying that there were Sharingan-users outside of the Uchiha clan?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Kaori said with a nod, "Sharingan was a genetic disorder, very different then what it is today with the mix of Chakra." She walked to the chalk board and sketched in the shape of a human eye. The iris and pupil were oddly shaped.

"This was the original 'Sharingan,' if you can even call it that. You'll notice that there weren't any tomoe, just the red eye. Those who developed it hyper-focused on everything around them. Over time, the inability to cope with the micromanagement drove them to lose touch with reality. That's why it was known as Devil Eye back then."

Minato raised his hand, and Kaori signaled that he could speak. "What caused the original genetic disorder?"

Kaori paused. "I actually don't know the answer to that question. All I know is over time, people with the disease were forced to come together to discover the secrets of it. Since it was genetic, their descendants would inherit it, and controlling it was vital. Once it was mixed with Chakra, the Sharingan-users turned their once illness into an advantage. It led to persecution from those without the gift. They formed their own society out of necessity. Like I said though, a rift between two rival brothers came about. The problem was that no one could decide who would rule as head of the family after their former leader grew old and died. The elder brother should have inherited the position, but he was cruel and many would not follow him. Instead, they nominated his younger brother, who was kind and gentle. Sadly, he was not nearly as gifted with his Sharingan than his elder brother was. Those who concerned themselves with power sided with the elder and those with fair-rule the younger. Two clans formed from this. They battled for a decade. Later on, this became known as the Sharingan War."

"But which brother won?" Ryokumaru asked, the story now consuming him. He _had_ to know how it ended.

"I don't think either really did. The younger attacked his brother's estate directly at the end of the war. In a fierce battle, the elder killed his younger brother, and crushing the ranks of the opposing clan. However, he saw that in his victory he had lost. His brother was dead before him, by his own hand. They say that something happened to his Sharingan after that, and he lost control. The estate burned down in black fire that scorched for seven days and seven nights. Those who remained loyal to the younger brother used the confusion to eradicate the survivors of their enemy clan, and became the soul users of the Sharingan. They became the Uchiha clan."

There was a silence. Katsu was in awe by how much had happened to the clan, and how much there was that he had never learned about in Shinobi history. Ryokumaru on the other hand, could only think about the clash between the two brothers, and wondered if someday he would have to do battle in the same fashion. After minutes, Minato spoke.

"Why have you told us this?" He said firmly.

"Because," Kaori spoke, "The Sharingan eyes have seen blood time and time again. Some say that it has left them stained and tainted. In order for the three of you to understand the Sharingan, you have to know its origins. It was born in the pain of prejudice and raised in the fires of war. Don't think that the old Uchiha clan never came back for revenge on those who had banished them. That is the nature of the Sharingan. It's important to know if you ever intend to survive against it."

Katsu's head popped up at this statement. "You mean you're going to teach us how to combat the Sharingan?!"

Kaori nodded. "That's why I'm here. Jiraiya-chan learned a long time ago, and now he's asked me to teach the three of you. There are only five people outside of the Uchiha clan, including your sensei and the Hokage, who know how to effectively counter the Sharingan. It isn't perfect, but there is no sure way to battle a kekkei genkai."

"What about the Head of the Clan?" Katsu continued, eyes beaming with excitement, but not wanting to give his hopes up. Minato could barely believe it, and Ryokumaru was about to burst. "He's really okay with you teaching us, Kaori-sensei?"

She chuckled. "_Hell_ no! He's going to have a shit-fit when he hears about this, but it isn't like he can do anything about it. I married out of his clan, so he doesn't have any jurisdiction. I changed my name back to Uchiha so he wouldn't have seizures about a non-Uchiha with Sharingan, and attend social events so I still look like part of the group, but when it comes down to it he can't do anything about it."

Minato started searching fingers for a wedding ring and didn't see one.

"Are there any questions?" She questioned her class.

All three boys raised their hands.

She pointed to Ryokumaru.

"Who's your husband!"

"Just some jerk, and we're legally separated as it is."

She pointed to Katsu.

"Why do you wear a mask and sunglasses?"

"Because I don't have dental incurrence, and I think the shades look cool."

She pointed to Minato.

The boy opened his mouth.

"No."

Minato slowly closed his mouth, and she removed her sunglasses, showing glowing red eyes, with what appeared to be slowly spinning black wheels and tomoe inside them.

"Now's about the time where we discuss the powers of Sharingan. First of all, there are three levels." She approached the chalk board, stepping over Jiraiya. Apparently he had fallen out of his chair at some point in the conversation.

She sketched in a circular shape around the Sharingan eye she had drawn earlier. After her few modifications, she made another pupil, smaller and part of the dashed-circular-ring. "This would be known as the most simple level of Sharingan. With one tomoe, the primary ability gained is to see through techniques. This can be used to quickly evaluate taijutsu to dodge easier, ninjutsu to find the true purpose behind the attack, and genjutsu to see through it, as well as many other more common uses. How this works is it releases the limits on the brain and allows sight perception to be done instantaneous. For the normal human, there is a very, very slight lag time that it takes for their brain to register things they are seeing. When that lag is completely removed though, the user's reflexes seem sharper and swifter to the normal eye. But increasing perception does other things. Since the eye is taking in more light, you could say more things will be noticed. Hyper-focusing becomes much easier, since the brain speed is accelerated. What this all means is that with but one tomoe, misleading the user with taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu becomes almost worthless. They will be able to keep up with extremely fast speeds, and hit targets with extreme accuracy.

"This is why the Uchiha clan always seems so good with shuriken, kunai, and other projectiles. They can also use senbon more effectively, since it is a weapon purely devoted to accuracy. None of this is really any sort of skill on the Uchiha's part though, since with Sharingan, noticing weaknesses, tracking high speeds, and reacting to danger is relatively easy."

"But, you said that the most basic levels of the Sharingan weren't very powerful. What you just described was wicked-awesome." Ryokumaru said, looking somewhat confused at how the Sharingan works.

"It's its own downfall. Like I said, none of that is really based on the Uchiha's own skill, so when they might _seem_ better, they aren't much without Sharingan. A lot also get over confident and careless. Trust me, a punch in the face hurts just as much, with or without Sharingan, you just see it coming faster the second way. There are also ways of using their hyper-focusing against them. Sharingan will virtually pick out ways to avoid an attack with ease, but it isn't universal. I'll give an example.

"Imagine you're focusing on avoiding shuriken coming at you. Even if there was more then one or a thousand shuriken coming, a good enough Sharingan-user could render them all worthless. There could even be some kunai mixed in to try and mix them up, but it wouldn't help. Assaults from taijutsu would be just about the same. Whether it's one or a thousand people fighting them, they would be seeing the weaknesses in the taijutsu stance and targeting them. This is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's still the same point. An incoming ninjutsu would be analyzed, and the counter-move would be simple. But Sharingan users can only hyper-focus on one at a time, whether it's taijutsu, shuriken, or ninjutus. The Sharingan-user could avoid ten people attacking with taijutsu with ease, but be taken down by one simple shuriken to the back. When fighting a Sharingan-user, assume that whatever techniques you're using will be compromised. No quick taijutsu moves would fake them out, and ninjutsu with hidden agendas wouldn't work. It's only when you use something out of category that you'll hit their weak spot. Using ninjutsu on a Sharingan-user, and having an ally come to deliver a punch from behind is the perfect kind of assault. Said Sharingan-user is thinking about ninjutsu, not taijutsu."

She let this set in. Minato raised his hand, and she nodded for him to speak.

"Is this also how Sharingan-users see though genjutsu, Kaori-sensei?" It was an honest question, since he needed to know the limitations of Sharingan.

Kaori nodded. "It isn't super-anti-genjutsu-magic, but if the user is skilled enough to recognize the genjutsu, there is a high chance that they'll be able to get out of it easily."

Ryokumaru inserted a comment of his own. "So how is it that Sharingan copies techniques?"

"I was getting to that." Kaori replied, wishing that the kids could be just a bit more patient. She had plenty of time to tell them all they needed to know. She approached the chalk board again and rearranged the patterns on the eye. When she moved away, it showed two tomoe.

"This is the second power of the Sharingan, which it is probably known best for: mimicking jutsu. If you recall I said that Sharingan broke limiters in the brain. Well, when this level of Sharingan is used, most things seen can be burned into your mind; eidetic memory. It isn't just taijutsu stances, ninjutsu and genjutsu hand seals that can be copied, since almost anything that you would have to remember can be stored with the use of Sharingan. Once again, Sharingan can be very useful."

Ryokumaru mumbled something about memorizing books and lesson plans without work. Katsu saw the power of photographic memory a mighty strength, in combat, training, and everyday life. Minato wasn't very impressed, since if he spent time to focus, he could already burn things into his memory. He'd been doing it since he was young.

"But Kaori-sensei, how could you go up against something like that?" Katsu questioned.

"There are limitations to what can be copied. Jutsu that don't have hand seals obviously can't be copied, and if the user can't keep up with it, taijutsu won't be able to be tracked. If a jutsu requires proficiency in an element the Uchiha doesn't have, then they obviously can't use it. Hiden jutsu, which are extremely complicated, can't be copied, and neither can S-Rank jutsu, which surpass hiden jutsu in sophistication."

Ryokumaru smirked, which Kaori noticed quickly. "What's with that grin?" She said, raising an eyebrow.

"There aren't such things as S-Rank jutsu. Those are just myths that they tell academy students."

There was a pause. "S-Rank jutsu are very real, boy," was the statement fed to Ryokumaru.

"That can't be though, since there isn't any jutsu recorded as being stronger then A-Rank, besides the occasional kekkei genkai or hiden jutsu."

Minato was wondering about this as well. He had never heard of an S-Rank jutsu before.

"As you would imagine, S-Rank jutsu are _very_ rare. They are the strongest techniques after all. And as for not hearing about any of them, I'm glad, since you hopefully will never have to witness one in action. Pretty much all S-Rank jutsu are horribly destructive, and most are ranked as forbidden jutsu. Not that you could see them, but the Forbidden Jutsu Records would list several S-Rank jutsu."

"You could learn an S-Rank jutsu from reading the Forbidden Jutsu Records!" Katsu suddenly stood up from his seat. S-Rank jutsu were sounding cooler and cooler.

Once again Kaori shook her head. "Nope. The Forbidden Jutsu Records only describe them, maybe name them, but you can't learn them. S-Rank jutsu can't be _learned_, they can only be _made_. To know an S-Rank jutsu is to have constructed it yourself. Don't waste your time looking for them."

Katsu took his seat again. Kaori put her finger on her chin as if pondering. "Now where was I…oh yes, two-tomoe Sharingan. Like I said, there are limitations to what it can copy. The way to get around losing your favorite ninjutsu to them is simply not to use it on them, or make sure they can't see you. Even if they do manage to copy a technique, they might not be able to use it in battle right away, since their skill with it wouldn't be the same as yours. Uchiha who copy jutsu still have to practice them like everyone else."

Katsu spoke. "I'm beginning to see how the Sharingan can be beaten. Even though it is impressive, it isn't without weaknesses. Tell me, who are the other three who know what you're telling us, that are outside of the Uchiha clan."

"Well, the head of the Hyuuga clan claims that he could defeat the Sharingan, but it's just a bluff. No one has taught him, and the Uchiha especially wouldn't let a Hyuuga learn how their Sharingan techniques work. One of those three is a Jonin who was formerly on your sensei's team. I'm not really sure how he learned it, but he happens to know a lot about Sharingan and defenses against it. Then there is my boss, who the Uchiha taught personally, like they did the Hokage."

"Who's your boss?" Ryokumaru asked. He was just in a mood to know everything today.

"I can't say his name, but he is currently the ANBU Director of Operations."

"And the last?" Minato was making a mental list of others who would know what he was learning.

"One of my students. I have another Uchiha on my Genin team, so between the two of us using our Sharingan, he somehow figured it out. The Uchiha clan petitioned to have the memories removed from him, but he assures all of us that he isn't going to tell anyone else. They still keep a close watch on him though, but he's kept his mouth shut."

"Who is the other Uchiha on your team, Kaori-sensei?" Minato asked his second question.

"I believe all of you know her." Kaori sort of smiled with her eyes. "Her name is Uchiha Masami, she's my cousin."

A look of horror shot through the eyes of all three boys. That one girl, also a Genin, single handedly destroyed Team Ronin, and she was trained by the woman in front of them, Uchiha Kaori.

Katsu gulped. "So, you taught Jiraiya, and the three of us, while the Hokage-sama and ANBU Director were taught directly by the Uchiha clan. One figured it out by studying it, and no one knows how the other learned. Out of the eight people known who are now going to know how to fight the Sharingan, that aren't part of the Uchiha clan, you've taught half of them?"

Kaori thought about it, before giving an answer in a rather girlish tone. "Yup! I'm just awesome like that!"

The three boys whispered a few words to each other before Kaori began speaking again. She approached the board again, and added more details to the Sharingan eye picture.

"This is the final level of Sharingan, three-tomoe, also the level I have. Moving up to this level is extremely difficult as compared to the other levels of Sharingan. The ability associated with this…is seeing the future.

"It's impossible to _actually_ see the future, but this isn't the same thing. This level of Sharingan completely breaks restraints on the brain speed of processing. Brain waves move as fast as they possibly can. When moving in overdrive like that, things seem slower, and the Sharingan-user has much more time to predict their opponents next move. Whether it's hand steals, weaponry use, or even reading lips," she gave Minato a sly look, "with three tomoe, it will very much seem like the Sharingan-user is seeing into the future."

Jiraiya, face down one the desk, started to snore. Kaori grabbed his hair and gently pulled his head backwards. She took a black marker, uncapped it, and slowly and carefully started to color in the red lines on Jiraiya's face. The still sleeping white haired man had no idea of any of this. Kaori continued to talk.

"I doubt any of you could do it without a great deal of training, but there is a way to stop this. You see, three-tomoe Sharingan-users will predict the move most likely to be done. In order to fight against this, every move made must be rendered instinctual. Instead of fighting by style, the results of training, and planning, your combat capabilities must be reflex, so much that they just flow on their own. The Sharingan-user may try to track you, but chances are they'll be completely lost. It takes years to be able to fight like this, so I don't expect any of you to be able to do it, but now you know. The best the three of you could probably hope for when dealing with this is that the Uchiha gets a head ache from their brain waves moving so fast. Does anyone have any more questions about Sharingan?"

Katsu was the first to take her up on that. "Can't Sharingan be used for hypnosis? You didn't cover that."

Kaori answered, still coloring Jiraiya's face. "Yes it can, but it isn't tomoe based. When the wheel in the Sharingan eye spins, a highly proficient Sharingan-user can hypnotize someone looking into their eyes. It's about the same as swinging a watch in front of someone's face, but with less talking. Since the spinning of the wheels is a muscle movement, someone who really knows how to move their eyes can move them in just the right way. It's difficult, I can't even do it."

"Kaori-sensei, why do some Uchiha have different numbers of tomoe in each eye?" Minato inquired.

"Ahh, I see someone caught on to something." Kaori answered, putting away the marker, and dropping Jiraiya's head back down on to the table. He fidgeted, and came to a slow awareness. When he rubbed his eyes, the black marker on his cheeks blurred. "What you just described to me is ASD, or Asymmetrical Sharingan Disorder. Usually, it's when an Uchiha has one tomoe in one eye, and two in the other. Even rarer is two in one eye, and three in the other."

Minato thought for a moment. "When I saw Uchiha Masami's Sharingan, she had one tomoe in an eye, and three in the other."

"It's…well, the rarest version of ASD. You see, when the number of tomoe isn't even, one eye has to strain harder then the other. More Chakra is required to keep the Sharingan active, and the advantages of the Sharingan can fluxuate. With one and two tomoe, the user may not be able to copy moves at times, and with two and three tomoe, they may not always be able to predict movements."

"And with one and three…the user may not be able to copy moves or predict movements when they try…" Minato finished.

"That's about right. It's also supposed to cause severe headaches when the Sharingan is deactivated, but I was lucky enough to never have ASD."

Ryokumaru was the last to ask a question. "Do _all_ Uchiha have Sharingan?"

Kaori, who had been answering all their questions, decided she might as well answer this one as well. "No. Actually, most women of the Uchiha clan don't have Sharingan. It is mainly considered a coming of age sign for men, coming out at the beginning of puberty. Girls do not naturally get Sharingan. If a female member of the Uchiha clan happened to not be a ninja, they would never acquire Sharingan. The same is not true for the men."

"But why do you and Masami-sempai have Sharingan?"

"I said most Uchiha women don't have it, and they don't get it naturally. In order for a woman to achieve Sharingan, they have to force themselves to activate it, and constantly train it. The number of tomoe within the eye are usually constant, since Uchiha never have a lack of using Sharingan, but they can recede. For a man, it could be years before they start losing tomoe. For a woman, it could be a single month. I've actually completely lost my Sharingan at one point. When it comes to this kekkei genkai, men are just naturally better at it. Fortunately, women are better at everything else, so it's a small loss."

Kaori smirked at Jiraiya, who rolled his eyes. Ryokumaru chuckled, and Minato and Katsu snickered.

Jiraiya stood. "Alright, it's about time we rapped this up. Ryo-chan, go meet up with Akio. Mina-chan, you're with me. As for you Kat-chan you get to keep Kaori company." Jiraiya waltzed closer to Katsu before leaning in to whisper. "And I wouldn't try anything slick around her. She's very perceptive."

Katsu blankly stared at Jiraiya.

* * *

**-Intermission-**

Take a break, you just read a ton. Get some fresh air, hit the bathroom, grab a drink, whatever you have to do, but make sure you take a breather.

* * *

**-Chapter 8.5: The Many Sins of the Past-**

"This sucks! I can't believe I'm a Genin and doing this again!" Ryokumaru exclaimed, as he threw his next kunai at the target. He was at the training grounds with the laid back Akio throwing knives. He had already finished his shuriken throwing. This stuff was just boring to him.

"Since D-Rank missions don't have combat, practice is about all a Genin can do to stay in shape. I bet Minato-san and Katsu-san practice everyday. Don't tell me you sit at home and play video-games." Akio replied, looking into a mirror fixing his hair. He dressed as a usual Chunin did, but fixed his forehead protector to his arm as not to distract from his face. Ryokumaru got the idea from him when he had become a ninja.

The Chuunin may not have dressed unusual, but he was quite handsome. The Rokku still thought he spent a little too much time with cosmetics.

"Well, I don't play video games all the time…" Ryokumaru scratched the back of his head.

It only took a glance from Akio to let the boy know that he still had to throw shurikens.

He picked up the next knife, tossed it into the air and caught it again. He threw it violently at the target, hitting it close to perfectly. He smiled and praised himself.

"_I'm well on my way. This may seem pointless now, but when I have to face him…I'll be powerful enough to bring him back. No matter what he says, he can't change who he is, no matter how many masks he wears."_

Minato and Katsu sometimes seemed like they were light-years ahead of himself, but he knew that wasn't completely true. Like he always reminded himself, he had an advantage that they would never be able to obtain. Besides, when the time came, Ryokumaru hoped to be able to fight his brother without their help. Without anyone's help. He had been weak before, afraid even. There was nothing he could do. That would change next time.

"I'll defeat you, Rikimaru, and I'll make us a family again. No matter what." He whispered under his breath. When he looked up he realized he had already thrown all of his kunai. He turned to look at Akio.

The Chuunin put his mirror away and turned to the boy, and then looked at the target. "Not bad, Ryokumaru-san."

Ryokumaru gave a thumbs-up to show his gratification. This got a smile out of Akio.

"Y'know, I don't believe I ever told you my specialty, did I?" Akio said with the same smile on his face.

Ryokumaru shook his head. "Nah, since you've only been a Chuunin a couple years…I sort of figured you sucked at it and just tried to look pretty instead."

The smile melted off of Akio's face. There was a long pause. Akio decided he wouldn't acknowledge anything just said. Of course he didn't _try_ to look pretty. He _was_ pretty.

"Taijutsu. I'm good with hand-to-hand combat."

Ryokumaru's eyes shot open. "Taijutsu!? Really? That's awesome!" Ryokumaru almost yelled. As far as he could remember, taijutsu had always been what interested him. "Does that mean you could teach me super-moves!"

Akio crossed his arms and shook his head. "Nope, I can't say I know any 'super-moves.' I do happen to know a powerful technique. Ever heard of the **Eight Gates**?"

The Genin thought about this. "Umm…is that something you see before you die?"

"What? It's, wait, no…" Ryokumaru's answer even confused Akio. (He was super-pretty, not super-bright.) "The Eight Inner Gates are limiters placed inside the body that prevent it from going to the extremes, overworking, and killing itself. There is a way to release those gates though, and become more powerful. It's perfect for taijutsu users like me."

_Reminds me of how Kaori-sensei explained Sharingan. This seems a little different though, if it releases limiters on the whole body and not just the brain._

"How do you know about something like that, Akio-sensei?" Ryokumaru asked. It sounded pretty powerful.

"Well, Jonin are required to know how to open the first gate. I on the other hand know how to open five of them."

"Do you think…you could show _me_ how to open the first gate?"

Akio thought about it and smiled again. "Not right away, but I think I might be able to arrange something like that. Genin aren't allowed to learn higher then the second gate without the Hokage's permission, and even then it's extremely difficult and risky. Plus, I'm not teaching you anything until we've finished redoing all of the basics. Now, if you can show me that you've mastered your foundations before the one month that your sensei gave to us, I can spend the rest of the time teaching you how to open the first gate. Who knows, maybe even the second gate. Then again, this is only if you finish the traini—"

Ryokumaru was pounding his fists repetitively into a tree, but not mindlessly. He was following the taijutsu training method Akio had shown him earlier.

"That worked well." Akio mumbled to himself.

**-Minato-**

The blonde and his sensei walked into the training area. They had already had to leave three others that were occupied.

"There are two types of Lighning-element Chakra: Positive and Negative." Jiraiya explained while taking out a simple shuriken and giving it to Minato. "It doesn't make a difference in training purposes, from what I'm told, but in combat, being paired against the opposite Lightning-element is said to be worse then being paired with someone of the Wind-element. Where as Lightning attack will still work, even though not as well, someone with the opposite Lightning Chakra is unbeatable unless your raw power with it, measured in volts or something, is stronger.

"Basically, a skillful Lightning attack may be able to break through a Wind attack, but unless your Lightning attack is stronger, a polar opposite Lightning attack will crush yours. As I'm sure you know, opposites attract, so if your opponent has a larger Chakra capacity then you, an opponent highly trained in the Lightning-element can rip your Chakra out of you at the same expense for himself. Since they had more Chakra available in the beginning, they'd be left with minimal Chakra, while you'd be left with none."

Minato blinked as he absorbed all his Jonin sensei told him. "Are you sure you don't have the Lightning-element, Jiraiya-sensei? You seem to know an awful lot about it."

Jiraiya nodded. "Like I said, my old team mate had Lightning-element Chakra. I learned stuff from him. I thought I already told you, I have Water-element Chakra."

Minato was a little surprised at this. He hadn't imagined Jiraiya being the type to have Water-element Chakra.

"It seems like Lightning-element Chakra is way more complicated then Water-element Chakra…" Minato mumbled.

Jiraiya sighed. "You'd be surprised at how many different kinds of water there is in the world, Mina-chan."

"So what is this shuirken for, Jiraiya-sensei?"

"That's your training. The Chakra that runs through you is Lightning-element. Right now it doesn't matter if it's positive or negative. We're going to pull out your element by conducting it into this shuriken. This training is a three step process, and this is just step one. The ultimate goal is for you to learn a B-Rank Lightning Jutsu. It was invented by that friend I told you about, but he didn't have the Chakra control to use it to its fullest extent. I think you might."

Minato nodded. "I'm ready, Jiraiya-sensei."

"Good. Hold the shuriken in your palm. You need to channel Chakra into your hand, and slowly let it leak out. What your aiming to do is slowly magnetize the shuriken."

"How do I know when the shuriken is magnetized?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "I have no idea, you just should. Anyways, once it's magnetized, you need to move the Chakra under your hand. Since it'll be either Positive-Positive or Negative-Negative, it should repel. The shuriken will float in your hand. As you can see, this is going to be extremely difficult to get just the right amount of Chakra to keep it under control. Go ahead and begin."

With this, Jiraiya found a tree to rest against and closed his eyes. It left Minato alone to mess with his Chakra. In slow pulses he pushed it into his palm and let it dissipate. So far as he saw, it wasn't working.

The shuriken in his hand was still as ever, and after an hour of holding his arm in that position, it was aching so bad he had to put it down. Thirty seconds later he placed the shuriken in his left hand and continued the process. He made even less progress since he wasn't used to this hand. His lazy sensei had fallen asleep within a quarter of an hour, but the silence did help Minato make mental notes of his mistakes.

As time flew by, that's all Minato did. Make mistakes. However, he never made the same one twice. With constantly switching between arms, they didn't ache very much, but even though he was using small amounts, his Chakra slowly dwindled. He had succeeded in making the shuriken levitate several times, but only briefly and out of sheer luck. He dropped it once when he pushed his Chakra down into his hand and it toppled the shuriken over. After that he learned he needed to exert an even amount of Chakra fully around his palm. He practiced until he knew that he could perform the art without flaw and every time, which coincidentally was when he was too exhausted to mold any more Chakra.

**-Katsu-**

"So do you have the hang of the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu? _(Shadow Clone Technique)_

Uchiha Kaori and Otonashi Katsu were in an indoor training area. It was already dark outside, so it was important for it to be well lit while they trained, since that was going to be a while.

"I think I'm about there. It's very similar Chakra molding to the normal Bunshin, but the handseals are completely different." Katsu responded, starting to make the handseals again.

"That's because your Chakra is still copying, but it's doing it in a very different manner. There's a reason why one is a D-Rank jutsu and one is a B-Rank.

"**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"** Katsu called out as four clones appeared. They all sort of wandered around. Since they were all based off of Katsu's previous memories, he was exploring what it was like to be a Chakra clone. It was different moving then it normally would be, since instead of flesh and blood they were physically manifested Chakra, or at least something close to it.

"Kaori-sensei, can clones use jutsu?" Katsu asked, the real one that is.

The raven-haired Jonin answered back. "Yes they can, but it's harder for clones to use them then it normally would be. You'd also have to make clones that had enough Chakra."

Two of the clones started to body flicker around the room, just to see how jutsu would differ. "I think I get it now." Katsu said, a slight smile touching his face. Using shadow clones was starting to make sense. The two clones that had almost no Chakra faded, leaving two left that were now just standing around. "And I assimilate memories of the clones too. Is that supposed to happen?"

Kaori nodded for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. "Yeah, it's supposed to do that."

"Could you use it for training!" Was the first thing that came to Katsu's mind.

Kaori shook her head now. "Nope. The most clones I think _anyone_ could summon at one time would be about one hundred. That may be a lot, but not enough to make a huge difference in training speed. Besides, those clones only last a minute or two, which really isn't enough time to get anything accomplished. You can use clones to get battle experience on an opponent though, by sending them in to fight before you. It's a common Jonin technique, which is why we watch out for the 'first wave' of enemy attacks, using different styles to throw off what our opponent learned. That's advanced ninja tactics though, and we're just trying to teach you the move for now."

Katsu eyed her wakizashi for a moment, before looking her in the eyes again. He thought about what she had just said, and then turned around and threw a shuriken straight at one of his clones. The clone took the shuriken right into the heart and exploded in a puff of air. The remaining cloned looked confused.

"Kat-chan, did you just kill yourself?" Even the Jonin looked confused. Unfortunately for Katsu, the 'Kat-chan' nickname rubbed off. He really hoped he wasn't going to be called that for the rest of his ninja career.

"Yes I did. Strangely, I don't remember the pain, unlike how I remember things from the other clones. Probably because death occurs before the body can realize it. Then again, if the death of a Kage Bunshin really did cause you pain, it wouldn't be much of a B-Rank jutsu, now would it?"

Katsu dissipated his remaining clone, and then reached up, gripping the handle of his sword, but not taking it off his back, just thinking and staring off into blank space. "Kaori-sensei, I've noticed that my Kage Bunshins have the same sword on their backs. Does it have the same properties? Lets say my sword is special. Are all the swords special too?"

Kaori raised an eyebrow, but decided it would be better not to ask. "No. Kage Bunshins are solid clones, but they aren't flesh and blood the same as people are. Their bodies are chakra. Anything they carry is about the same. I'll give you an example." She closed her eyes and opened them again with her Sharingan active. "My kekkei genkai is limited to me. My body alone possesses the ability to use it, so any Kage Bunshins of mine wouldn't have its advantage. They might have red eyes that look like Sharingan, but the eyes themselves aren't any better. I suppose if I shoved huge amounts of chakra into a clone, they may be able to mimic the ability, but the method on a whole is flawed. They aren't _real_ clones after all, just solid ones."

Katsu nodded, and then turned to face his teacher again. This time he looked pretty serious.

"_It's better to break the ice and just ask…"_

"Kaori-sensei, can you teach me how to fight with a sword?"

The Uchiha blinked a few times. "Well, I coul—"

"—She will not!"

It was the sound of a man's voice. The door to the training center was open, and standing in the doorway was Jiraiya, with Ryokumaru and Minato right behind him. The Jonin little-less-then stormed into the room, annoyed for some reason. Ryokumaru and Minato looked at each other, and both shrugged at Katsu.

"Jiraiya-chan?" Kaori said with a questioned look. What was up with him.

"A sword is not the weapon of a ninja. Ninja fight with kunai, shuriken, jutsu, and their heads. There is no place for a hulking weapon like a sword for a shinobi. It's best that you just forget about it." The white haired man spoke with acrimony in his voice, the idea already bitter to him

Katsu's eyes narrowed. "What would you know about it?!" The boy made fists and his sharpened eyes turned angry, directed towards his sensei.

"Katsu!!" Kaori called, foregoing the nickname. "He's your sensei, and senior shinobi!"

"_Even if Katsu has a reason to be annoyed, he's still a child and a Genin. Learning to bite your tongue, sadly, is extremely important to being a ninja. But Jiraiya-chan, why do you have to take this out on the kids?"_ Kaori rubbed her temples with her thumb and forefinger.

Katsu looked down and took a deep breath. "Excuse me, Jiraiya-sensei."

Jiraiya turned his back. "Training is concluded today, I have someone who I need to speak with. Minato, we'll meet tomorrow on the same field. You and Ryokumaru should have plenty of time for your…morning chores." He was referring to them having to constantly spend their mornings carving into the cliff to make a third face. "And Kaori…" He looked back at her, then sighed and left.

There was a pause, where the stillness of the night could be felt.

"What the _hell_ is his problem!" Katsu suddenly burst. "He's acting like he has a stick shoved up his ass!"

Ryokumaru crossed his arms and nodded. "Yeah, he was a bit off today…"

Minato was thinking a bit more. "Why was he angry at the mention of swords? Kaori-sensei is a ninja and carries them, just like all of ANBU has wakizashi."

The only remaining Jonin in the room sighed and walked to lean against a wall. Maybe they should know…

"It's because Jiraiya has a bad history with swords. Some of that is actually my fault."

Team Ronin looked at her, not really understanding. She then leaned off the wall and drew her white stone wakizashi. "But Jiraiya was right about one thing. Swords aren't the weapon of ninja. There are other things to learn before them, like kunai and shuriken. Statistics show that against an unarmed target, a kunai is about six times as deadly as a sword would be, and most swordsmen die due to projectiles, not another blade. What a sword really is for…is defense. Or so I've been trained anyways."

She then walked out to the center of the room, back to them, and sharply turned around, wakizashi held backwards-style out in front of her, her other hand on guard behind her, not far from the saya of her weapon.

"I want all three of you to come at me with kunai, fists, whatever, as long as it is close-range."

Team Ronin all looked at each other. There was sort of a pause. A Jonin? A Jonin was going to show off their skills?

"Awesome!" Ryokumaru shouted. He dropped into his loose stance he had practiced with Akio earlier that day.

Katsu snickered and pulled on the heavy sword behind him, the straps holding it to his back coming undone at the pull and falling to the floor. He held it out in front of himself in a basic katana fighting style.

Minato on the other hand, wasn't too excited. He was devastatingly low on Chakra after spending it so carelessly today. He drew a single kunai from his ninja pouch and took a step back instead, looking up to measure the distance to the ceiling, and then too his sides to memorize the dimensions of the room. Just in case.

"Let's go!" Katsu said, being out in front, being the unofficial and unspoken leader of this little attack. He swung at Kaori, and her arm shifted to block his strike at lightning speeds. With two hands he wasn't even able to make her budge. Ryokumaru jumped forward now.

"Time to show you real skill!!"

He dived at her with his foot out in front. She more or less slapped him with her off hand and he fell on his face behind her.

Minato had moved in so Katsu was obscuring himself from the Jonin's vision. Once he was close he jumped over her and slashed with the kunai.

She whipped her wakizashi up and parried Minato's attack, the boy landing behind her. Katsu recovered from her first guard, and slashed at her again. She blocked with ease.

Minato thrust, she parried again. Ryokumaru slowly got up and saw her being assaulted from both angles, and neither boy attacking getting anywhere close.

Five minutes later they were both sweating and panting. Ryokumaru had a moment of intelligence and had decided not to partake in their pathetic attack.

Kaori put the sword away. "Do you both see now? Defense is primary, and offense consists of attacking during counters. That's how I learned to fight."

"Who…taught you…how to use a…sword like that!" Katsu said between pants. He collapse on the floor, shortly after Minato did. Ryokumaru took a seat. His face was still in pain.

"Jiraiya-chan."

How much farther to the ground could three sitting boys get? It was like gravity increased tenfold on them.

"JIRAIYA!"

The shout was so huge; it was hard to tell who said it. Actually, they probably all did.

Kaori nodded. "There is a lot about Jiraiya that none of you know."

"You said Jiraiya-sensei had bad experiences with swords, Kaori-sensei. What did you mean by that?" Minato asked, looking up at her.

"…and, that you were partly to blame?" Katsu continued.

Kaori sighed. "Jiraiya probably doesn't want me telling any of you this, but I think you all have the right to know." Her voice was very serious, unlike its usual cheery and playful, maybe seductive tone. "Jiraiya was born from a corpse, or at least they say. His father was a Konoha ninja, and his mother was a supposed to be a civilian."

Minato and Katsu easily picked out the words "supposed to" from that sentence.

"He fell in love at her rather quickly, though I wouldn't be able to tell you the circumstances, not knowing them myself. They were married within six months, and they always seemed like a perfect couple from what I've heard, though he seemed to do much more for her then she did for him. She stayed home while he did all the shopping, working, cleaning, and from what Jiraiya tells me, cooking. I don't know what he saw in her, but it must have been grand."

She realized she was getting off track. "Anyways, the two were together and she became pregnant. Anyone who remembers her in this village will vouch that after Jiraiya's father announced she was going to have their child, she started acting extremely different, paranoid and stressed. She stopped leaving the house and avoided the few friends that she had. Tragedy struck when she was barely seven months. Apparently she was a Kuri nin under the orders of the Mizukage to assassinate Jiraiya's father specifically, but even stricter orders to do it only when the time was absolutely right, and that the murder should be in public."

The boys all looked at the ground. Ryokumaru was the first to break the silence with a mumble.

"He was betrayed by someone he loved…"

"That isn't it. Because she got her chance. You see, Jiraiya's dad was a high ranking ninja, very high. So he—"

"—who was he?" Katsu interrupted. Come on, it was a story, he just had to ask.

Kaori paused. "He was the creator and the current leader of ANBU."

The boys all looked at each other. Jiraiya's father was the maker of ANBU? Their sensei was the prodigy of someone like that! And, not to mention he was trained by the Sandaime! They were literally learning from the best. So why was he perverted? Only Minato could answer this question, and that he kept to himself.

She let that fact set in on the boys before continuing. "So he was standing next to the Hokage during the festival celebrating Konohagakure's tenth anniversary. She decided to make her move then, pregnant as she was. She wounded her faux-lover's sword arm. ANBU was around...but they didn't know how to fight someone like her, a woman so far along. I doubt I would have been able to raise a hand to her either."

Kaori let out a sigh. "From what I hear, Jiraiya's father tried only to restrain her, and in front of the entire village no one could bring themselves to raise a hand against her. Or, more likely, Jiraiya's father wouldn't let them. She became psychotic, as Jiraiya's father only weakened. Eventually, the Shodaime Hokage saw that Jiraiya's father, also his best friend, was motionless as she threw shuriken towards him. He shielded his friend with his own body, and then used his kekkei genkai, control over wood, and pinned her. She attempted to cut herself, or more so, cut the unborn Jiraiya with a kunai before she was completely trapped by the roots. They say the Shodaime Hokage's last words were directed at the ANBU founder. He told him...to forgive him, and he snapped Jiraiya's mother's neck." Kaori looked down. She had been told this story by Jiraiya's father first hand...and now she was passing it on to the next generation.

Even all of the boys looked a bit depressed. All of this happened to Jiraiya? How could he deal with it?

"The Shodaime Hokage didn't think of one thing through, which is the time it took to cut her body out of the wood. Though she may have died, Jiraiya was barely able to survive. He was born small and underdeveloped. Though...his father wouldn't let him go. He told the medical ninja that attempted to check the Shodaime for life signs, as well as those who wanted to tend to his arm, that if that child died, Konoha would have no future, and not to spend time with those who didn't deserve it. He, the founder of ANBU, as well as the Hokage, just didn't seem to matter as much as Jiraiya surviving. And somehow he did, to grow to the man he is today."

"His father's sword arm never fully healed, but it didn't stop him from training Jiraiya. Actually, he has had offers to join ANBU more times then, well, never mind. ANBU has never requested anyone except Jiraiya. It's a joke that they already have a paper awaiting his signature and a custom mask ready for him, and he need only walk in to get a position that would take any other shinobi decades to earn."

Ryokumaru hesitated to talk. "But...I thought Jiraiya hasn't been a Jonin that long?"

Kaori nodded. "No officially, but he's been on Jonin level tasks ever since he was fifteen or sixteen. With a sword, he's easily a Hi-Jonin."

Katsu raised an eyebrow. "Hi-Jonin?"

"It's unofficial for a Jonin who's just better then the rest. Let me give you a hint. I've been a Jonin for ten years, and I'm still _average_."

Team Ronin had a unison blink.

The self proclaimed average Jonin started towards the exit. "I think it's about time I got some beauty sleep. All of you boys look old enough to find your own ways home."

"Wait!" called Minato. "Tell me again, who's your husband!"

Katsu and Ryokumaru looked at their friend oddly, wondering what relevance that question could possibly hold.

Kaori turned and smiled a sort of smile done with the eyes. "Oh, just some bum, y'know, we're separated and everything."

She turned her back and took a few more steps. "But..." she spoke with a slightly dreamy tone. "...I'm hoping that'll change."

**-Minato-**

Seven days had come and gone without as much as a goodbye. But such was the way that days worked. They would arrive, and leave before you even realized they left. Much had happened in this past week though, or at least, Namikaze Minato was noticing more then he had previously.

For starters, Katsu's thirteenth birthday came. It was spent at Jiraiya's house, where Katsu now lived, with all of the Ronins and even Kaori. They made him a cake, gave him presents, and played games. For once, Minato felt like a perfectly normal child. It actually made him feel good inside. What was odd about it was how they all interacted. From Minato's point of view, he, Katsu, and Ryokumaru were like brothers, with Kaori and Jiraiya as the mother and father. They must have noticed it seemed like that as well, because there were an awful lot of blushing going on when they exchanged glances. But it didn't stop it from being fun. Katsu said it was the first real birthday of his life.

Though Minato had remained slim, all of the heavy labor of un-carving Minato's face in the cliff, however that was done, and finishing the Sandaime's impression had made Ryokumaru considerably buff. His body seemed to take to muscles much better then Minato's or Katsu's.

Ryokumaru had told them all that he was finished relearning his basics, so soon he would start learning a new technique of his own. Minato himself had a new teacher, who he called Orochi-sensei. The man had the Lightning Element like Minato, but he said it didn't suit how he normally fought, so he didn't use it much. When he was younger, he did practice basic manipulation skills, and thoroughly repeated them to Minato. Orochimaru didn't seem very friendly at first, but upon noticing that Minato was a quiet child and avid listener, he tolerated him with ease. He would simply impart the knowledge, and watch as Minato proceeded to master it. Though it was merely Minato being a good student, Orochimaru must have thought that he was a good sensei. And he wasn't completely horrible either. Though lacking lesion plans and helpful advice, Minato had to say that he definitely knew what he was doing. Kaori constantly mentioned that she didn't like him, but had to admit that he had well earned his respected status as a Hi-Jonin. Katsu had made some progress with the Kage Bunshin, but Kaori had secretly started imparting sword knowledge onto him as well.

Jiraiya had told them the day before that he had to leave on an A-Rank mission. Orochimaru apparently had conditions for his lesions to Minato, which was having Jiraiya take the mission. None of the boys complained, but instead, just wished him luck. Mysteriously, Kaori left Katsu instructions to practice the Kage Bunshin on his own. They didn't confirm where she went, but the boys had an idea who she had followed.

And lastly, the boys had made plans for this very day. This one had been in the works for a while. Though it was Minato's idea, it wasn't perverted. It was sort of a revenge scheme. Genin teams frequently challenged and battled each other, as they had learned, to see who was stronger, as well as a practice for the Chuunin examinations. The requirements were that no deadly force could be used, the other team must accept, and there must be a Chuunin who knew some medical jutsu to referee the battle; to make sure no one is seriously hurt.

The boys walked along the streets, all prepared and smiling to some extent. Behind them followed their Chuunin referee: Jiro-sensei. When looking for someone they could get to referee for their first match, Ryokumaru had remembered Jiro knew medical jutsu from when he was hit in the Genin test. After persuading him with, well, maybe it's best left unmentioned how Minato persuaded him.

The streets weren't overly filled with people when they caught sight of their target. He was a tall boy who was definitely older then them. He had dirty blonde hair, and wore reflective sunglasses. He had sneakers and faded jeans, not like a ninja would, and wore a green button down shirt with white flowers, leaving it open and showing off his chest. Though he was slim, he had tight muscles on him. The belt on his jeans held his only weapons: a single kunai and a green katana sheath. He was holding a soda and taking sips from a bendy straw.

Katsu walked forward and spoke. "You, you're Nemar, of Team Shade, right?"

The boy took another sip and tossed the cup behind him, then looked down at Katsu. "So…what if I am?" He asked, raising a blonde eyebrow and looking over at Minato, Ryokumaru, and Jiro.

Uchiha Masami and Hyuuga Hiroko, the other two members of Team Shade approached. "What's going on here, Nemar-kun?" Masami asked when she recognized Team Ronin.

"Perfect timing." Ryokumaru said with a smile.

"We, Team Ronin, want to challenge you, Team Shade, to a fight, with Jiro-sensei here to oversee us." Katsu said loud enough for all of them to here.

"Oh boy…" Hiroko mumbled.

Nemar started to laugh. "Wait, you three are going to challenge us? Team Shade? You do know that we're the strongest Genin team in all of Konoha, right?"

"You were the strongest. We're going to prove here today that you aren't." Ryokumaru said with a grin.

Masami crossed her arms over her kimono. "We're undefeated when it comes to these team matches, and I've never heard of you fighting any other teams. Maybe none of you know what you're getting into."

"Yeah, and I heard Masami-chan knocked all of you out a while back. The three of us? Do you boys really want to hurt that bad?" Hiroko finished off.

Minato saw the gleam of the sun in all of their glasses.

Nemar made the final choice. "I'll fight 'em. Even though I know they won't be able to beat us, they deserve a chance, right? I mean, all the other Genin teams of their age group lost to us already, why don't we just go for completion?"

People passing by saw the six ninja standing off each other, and started to leave them plenty of space in the streets. Jiro now interrupted.

"Team Ronin, you've been explained the rules. Team Shade?"

They all nodded. Jiro continued. "Okay, all of you have to be careful not to serious injure each other. Also, any involvement of bystanders, or failing to follow the rules can result in your ninja license being taken away."

They all nodded again. "Fine…begin."

At the signal, many things happened. For one, most of them drew weapons of a sort. Hiroku activated her Byakugan; Minato drew a kunai and jumped into the air; Masami jumped into the air after Minato, drawing her own kunai; Nemar ripped the kunai off of his belt; Ryokumaru charged forward; and Katsu pulled the bulky sword off of his back.

In the air, Minato and Masami collided and pushed each other away, until they were standing on opposite roof tops. Below, Katsu yelled and ran right at Nemar with a violent slash, knocking Nemar backwards as he dodged the aggressive blows from the blunt weapon. Ryokumaru threw a strong punch at Hiroko, but it was pushed out of the way with ease.

On the roofs, Masami was the first to act, drawing three shuriken from the holder on her leg, and hurling them at Minato. The boy jumped over them all at her, and made sure to bend his knees in and hold the kunai in front of him when he made for his attack-landing. Masami held out her own kunai and took the hit that had the force of gravity behind it, making her bend her knees with the pressure.

Still in the air, Minato swung a fist past the locked kunai, but it was avoided when Masami broke the hold and stepped backwards.

Minato smiled. Right as she did so he hurled his kunai at her, while snapping his hand back to grab a trio of shuriken. She jumped in the air to avoid the flying dagger, and when she saw the kunai coming at her, twisted fast.

The spinning blades barely missed her. One flew by the bridge of her nose and broke the ridge of her glasses. When she landed, they cracked and fell off. Now Minato could clearly see her red eyes.

"Sharingan…" He mumbled. Now his training would be put to the test.

"Yeah, the pride of the Uchiha clan. You'd best give up, Minato-san. You can't defeat it."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Masami-sempai, but I'm going to have to try."

Minato dashed forward while keeping low to the ground. She aimed a stab at his body, but he high kicked up in the air, hitting her wrist and knocking the weapon out of her hand. What followed was a brawl. Masami responded by punching Minato in the face. He was unable to avoid it and staggered back. She balanced on one foot and bent to the side for a round kick aimed at Minato's ribs. It contacted in full. He recovered though, and when she jumped for another kick, and flipped over it and behind her, where he quickly span around and elbowed her in the back. She fell and got back to her feet with a roll. Minato moved at her again, this time with a series of punches that were all blocked. Besides the Sharingan, the Uchiha taijutsu style proved to be effective. On a faulty punch, Masami ducked down low and smashed a fist straight into Minato's gut. He got the wind knocked out of him, and fell back wards from the follow up bicycle kick. He landed on his back, looking up at her, smiling with crossed arms, red eyes beaming.

"Not bad, you've definitely improved. But I have more battle experience then you do, and the Sharingan cannot be defeated by one like yourself."

Minato didn't say anything. His hand crept over to where the kunai he had knocked out of her hand fell, and he gripped it tightly, before getting to his feet and jumping high over the next roof top, starting to flee.

"_My plan should work. I'm injured enough that she believes she has the advantage, which she very well might. At least I know her ego is starting to take control."_

When he landed, it was in an alley a few buildings away. She hadn't yet followed him down. Quickly, Minato made calculations, looked down and slashed the kunai on the ground, leaving a mark. He then hurled the weapon as hard as he could, but with precise force, into the air directly above him. He jumped ten feet back, and saw Masami round the corner exactly where he thought she would.

"Running, Minato-san? I thought more of you."

He turned his back and did as she said; ran. Minato's mental timer was ticking. She moved to run after him. Then suddenly the boy span around and started doing the handseals to the most basic Lightning nature jutsu there was, the prelude to just about any jutsu in that element.

He saw Masami grin as she was still running forward. He knew she had seen through all of his moves, and might even be copying his jutsu right now. She stepped forward, her foot on the stretch in the ground, and there was a splatter.

She was frozen in pain. The kunai that Minato had thrown had come down exactly as he timed, and impaled her foot to the ground. She looked down at her foot and saw blood gushing around her sandal, and the kunai that had sunk deep into her foot.

Minato did two more handseals. **"Raiton! Bakuha!!" **

He held his hand out in front of himself and the yellow electricity that marked him as a Positive Lightning user erupted from him, shooting out at her like a violent river current. She seemed as if she was trying to dodge it reflexively, but her foot was stuck where it was, and the blast hit her right in the chest, and quickly flowed to the rest of her body. She collapsed on the ground. Minato watched as her eyes dimmed until they were merely black: the Sharingan gone.

She was shivering, as he was sure the shock had caused her heart to skip a beat.

He stood over her, victorious in front of the eyes of the Sharingan, and the elite Uchiha clan.

But something inside of Minato moved. Something deep in his core, which he wasn't used to acting.

He reached down and pulled the kunai from her bloody foot and tossed it to the side, then picked the girl up bridal style. Minato wasn't the strongest boy there was, definitely not as strong as Ryokumaru, but he did gain a fair amount of muscle from his manual labor.

"What…what are you doing!" She let out wearily; tears of humiliation in her eyes.

"I'm taking you down to the hospital."

"You…should get back to help your team mates." She argued, looking to the side.

"The defeated shouldn't be giving orders." Minato countered.

With that, Minato jumped onto the roof of another building and made his way across town to get her looked at.

Meanwhile, things weren't going as good for Ryokumaru and Katsu. The Rokku had been battling the Hyuuga for some time, his power style against her finesse. Ultimately, she had more experience, and was winning. Ryokumaru wasn't bad at dodging, but primarily blocked. It wasn't long before he felt the burning sensation inside of his arms when he took the hits.

"I've scorched your Chakra pathways, your jutsu will be ineffective. Though I must admit, you endured quite a bit." Hiroko said with a laugh.

Ryokumaru looked down at his arms, blisters and burn marks having formed. They felt like shit on the inside as well. "Damn you…" He muttered, before his feet were kicked out from under him and he was palm-struck in the stomach.

"Crap…I yield." He groaned, defeated.

"I thought you'd say that. Now leave here while I go to help out Nemar-kun." With that she turned around and headed for the other battle.

Katsu was dripping with sweat, and Nemar barely seemed to be trying. He was still only holding the single kunai.

"Draw your sword!" Katsu shouted at him.

"I don't see the need. You haven't drawn your either."

"_Damn it…"_ Katsu thought. He couldn't draw his weapon. There was a reason why. But Nemar…he was just playing with him!

Katsu jumped in the air and prepared for a strong aerial sweep, but Nemar took his kunai with two hands and parried the blow, sliding Katsu's attack to the side and watching as the blunt sword smashed into the ground, cracking the surface. Nemar aimed a blow at Katsu's neck with his fist, but Katsu caught the attack and jumped away, leaving his sword where it was.

Nemar relaxed his stance. "Go ahead and pick up your weapon, you weakling."

Katsu freaked, jumped at his weapon, grabbing it with a roll, and then felt the rush of Chakra through his body. A green mist erupted around the enclosed sword in his hands, and instantly his thrust, though terribly off, shot out with a new blade made of wind. All Nemar could do to avoid it was block with the kunai and roll backwards.

Katsu now stood up and resumed his fighting stance. He dropped low to the ground, one leg far in front of the other, with an arm bent over his head, the blade above him. It now had a thick green glow to it, a true blade.

The older boy looked at his kunai, and seemed surprised when he saw it break in half. He closed his eyes and chuckled. "It looks like you really are worthy to see this."

With that he drew his sword. It had a straight blade for a katana, only barely curving towards the tip, so much as it was little more than a single edged long sword. Though Katsu had never seen his katana blade in full, he knew it was curved more then his was. Actually, all katana Katsu had seen were bent more then Nemar's.

As Katsu ran forward Nemar seemed to lift his left hand up and grab the air itself. **"Hien!"** Katsu yelled out, as he brought down his sword which was now a massive weapon of green wind, ready to cut into Nemar's flesh.

Nemar pulled his arm down quickly, and as he did so, a similar green blade of wind seemed to manifest around his hand and into a mass of green Chakra like Katsu's. **"Kaze no Yaiba!"** _(Blade of Wind)_

Nemar's jutsu flew at Katsu, who almost fell over himself trying to slow down and block it. The pressure between the two Chakra blades smashing into each other was enormous, so much that Katsu couldn't move.

He felt a cut along his ribs, and then both blades of wind dissolved. Nemar was standing behind Katsu, having taken him down with one simple slash of his weapon.

"I…I lost…" Katsu mumbled, before his blood dropped to the ground and he to his knees.

"They are both B-Rank jutsu. The difference is that though yours may last for more then one cut, I can throw mine. Apparently, that was all that it took."

Nemar sheathed his weapon before kneeling before Katsu. "I want you to remember this battle. I want you to remember how easily I defeated you."

He stood, with one final word to his beaten enemy, "Remember the name Uzumaki Nemar, and don't think to challenge me again."

**-Hospital Room-**

Team Ronin found themselves in a hospital again. Jiro had done some spot treatments on Katsu, and delivered both of them here. Oddly enough, Minato was waiting for them. Now they were sitting together. Minato wasn't hurt for the most part, just some bruises. Ryokumaru had his arms wrapped, and his stomach as well, and had ointment applied for the burns of the Chakra. He was standing and looking out the window at the night sky. Katsu was the only one in a bed with an IV. His wrist was broken from the blunt force of the two wind blades colliding. In addition, his chest was bandaged up from the deep cut that Nemar had imparted on him. Jiro had warned Nemar before he left for how serious that wound could have been if it were a few inches deeper. Katsu didn't care. He was too angry to care right now.

"We lost." Ryokumaru finally stated.

"Shut up!" Katsu yelled, his white in a brace. He was annoyed at having been in the worst condition out of everyone.

"Even if he stopped saying it, it wouldn't change anything." Minato pointed out. Katsu looked angry, but had nothing to say against cold logic. "It appears all of us still have training to continue."

"Easy for you to say, you defeated Masami-sempai." Ryokumaru said, turning to face his peers.

"But we had also learned about fighting Sharingan last weekend. You were blind against the Byakugan, as I would have been. And Katsu had to face Nemar. They say he's the strongest Genin in our village. He should definitely be a Chuunin." Minato answered.

"We lost because we were weak!" Katsu bolted, using words as an outlet for anger.

Ryokumaru shook his head. "No, we lost because we weren't a team. We were fighting as three overconfident Genin, not the Ronin brothers we are. Well, should be." He looked over at Minato. "What Minato just said made me sure of that. We all split up as soon as the battle started. If we had stuck together, I'm sure we could have won. Nemar may be strong…but I'm sure he doesn't work together with Masami-sempai and Hiroko-sempai as well as we do."

Minato nodded.

Katsu then sighed. "You're right, Ryokumaru-san."

The Rokku shook his head. "See? There it is again. We aren't just three Genin on the same team! We're Ronin now, and we need to act as brothers. Minato, you call me Ryo-kun! Katsu, you call me Ryokumaru-san! We need to stop that! Between the three of us, there is no need for those titles!"

There was a pause, and Minato smiled. "Ryo…Katsu…I think I can get used to that."

"You're right again…Ryo." Katsu said this time.

"But not only that…we…we don't know enough about each other as a group. We need to be a team, a team without any secrets, and a team that's bonds are stronger then any enemy they through at us."

"What are you implying, Ryo?" Minato questioned.

"I'm…I'm implying I have something to confess." He looked each of them in the eyes. "My clan, the Rokku clan, is originally from Iwa. Years ago, there was a revolt against my clan because of the kekkei genkai we possessed, and we fled to Konoha. The Hokage…he was nice enough to accept us. However, no one who was an Iwa nin would be allowed to continue their work. It just wouldn't be safe. So in exchange for putting down their weapons forever, Konoha fought off Iwa's hunter ninja. My mother and father were both Chuunin before they came to Konoha. I was too young to be a ninja when I left Iwa, which is why I'm allowed to be one here in Konoha. I'm also the first Rokku to become a ninja here. That's why I have to be strong, and that's why I want to prove myself to the ninja of this village." Tears were starting in his eyes as he looked down.

"But…but I also have to prove myself to my brother. His name was Rikimaru. He's older then I was, and was in Iwa's ANBU. Instead of running away with me and the rest of us, he stayed behind and renounced his name, his clan, and his family."

Ryokumaru looked up with a passion in his face, as tears dropped without a sob or shudder. "And when I see him next, I want to be strong enough to force him to come to Konoha and apologize for all the pain that he's given us!"

There was silence in the room for a few moments, then Minato stood out of his seat.

"I was born to an actress and politician, neither of which loved their son more then their work. However, the circumstances of my birth were complex, and I never developed emotions as a child. Over time I put on…what my sister Sora likes to call a mask, which is the personality I show. I feel as if that is who I am as a person…but when necessary…that mask comes off all too easily. Too easily for a normal human. Suddenly, inhuman things seem simple for me, my fears melt into nothingness, and evil doesn't seem as wrong as it did before. I fight all the time to keep my self the way I am, and not to be devoured by the emptiness that is my core. I'd be a liar to say I haven't had trouble knowing my true self at times."

Ryokumaru and Katsu looked at Minato for a long time, but didn't comment, then Katsu knew it was his turn to talk.

"My mother was a ninja named Otonashi Yuri. She was a Jonin of this village who was a member of a stealth unit that was sent to investigate Kurigakure years ago. Along the way, she came across a shinobi part of the Swordsmen of the Mist. He slaughtered all of her life long comrades in front of her and then beat her nearly to death." Katsu almost chocked about here, but forced himself to keep talking. He had to say this.

"He kept her for himself, and raped her many times a day, every day. They say the Swordsmen were so feared, that he could do whatever he wanted with her, even in public, and no one would even raise a finger to try and help her, for f ear of what he would do. Not only that, but his specialty besides sword fighting was genjutsu. He put illusions into her mind that tortured her very soul. They say that in many of them he had made it seem as she escaped, as if years passed and everything was fine, and then he'd rip her out of her happy world only back into her nightmare. This lasted a long time…and eventually she became pregnant with me. He kept her the whole time." Katsu realized he was shaking, and made a fist with the hand that didn't have a broken wrist.

"Ninja from Kumo intercepted him. They say he killed a dozen of them before they drove him off. But they didn't kill him. Instead they used my mother as a hostage, thinking she was valuable to him. That wasn't correct…it was what was inside her that he didn't want harmed.

"Once they separated him from his weapon he fled. They returned her to Konoha, along with my father's sword." He motioned towards the ugly saya that didn't match the handle one bit. "Once here, they did everything they could to try and bring her around…but it was too late. She had experienced too many scenarios of being rescued. She would no longer believe anything as reality. She was retired as a ninja and given a home here."

Katsu took a breath. "And the reason I chain that sword up in that slab of metal is because it's dangerous. My father's sword…can grant many powers, but every time it is drawn, it draw someone's lifeblood, by plunging it into the heart. I make sure that it doesn't accidentally fall out."

"I feel sorry for your mother…" Ryokumaru sympathized.

"You shouldn't be. She was a vile woman to me, horrible you could say. The only thing that I had was this sword, a weapon that had tasted her flesh many times, but had never killed her. She's afraid of it, and it drives her to hate me even more. My goal…is to find my father. Not because I hate him, or because I want to kill him though. I won't decide either until I've met him. What I want to know is…why. Why did he create me? Why was I necessary?"

Minato sat back down, and even Ryokumaru took a seat. Katsu lay farther back in his bed.

"We're going to be Team Ronin until the end." Ryokumaru said quietly.

Katsu nodded, but Minato shook his head.

"I don't know…I'm not fond of the end. How about longer?"

**-Three Weeks Later-**

All of the boys trained as hard as they could after they healed. When Jiraiya returned, he mopped around depressed for a week or so, but then returned to his normal self. Oddly enough, he avoided all comments and questions about his mission. He simply wouldn't talk about it.

But that wasn't mattering at the moment. Ryokumaru had finished learning the first three gates, Katsu mastered Kage Bunshin, and Minato was proficient with his own new jutsu. Team Ronin was waiting outside the Hokage Tower for Jiraiya to return with their first C-Rank mission.

When he did so, the three boys practically jumped him.

"What are we doing! Are we fighting pirates!"

"Yeah, ninja are definitely better then pirates!"

"We could take a horde of pirates if they tossed them at us!"

Jiraiya got up and cleared his voice, then looked down at the paper. "Actually, they're robo-cyborg-pirates with railguns, whatever that is. The village gave us fifty ryou to go and buy some body armor, but I figured it would be better spent on some booze before we leave."

"Yes!" Ryokumaru shouted. "Greatest mission EVER!"

Minato blinked. "What's a cyborg?"

"I dunno." Katsu interrupted. "I'm more interested in this 'railgun' business. Can I have one?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Sure, as soon as we get that mission. What we're doing is escorting anarcheologist named Heine to a mountain range in the Country of Earth. There's a specific place called the Shattered Mountain where he wants to do some digging. We're there to make sure he doesn't get mugged."

"Oohhh.." Ryokumaru said. "Everything makes sense now…we're there to make sure he isn't mugged by the pirates, right?"

Jiraiya sighed. "Yup, Ryokumaru, we're there to make sure he isn't mugged by pirates."

The boys all looked at each other and laughed. Ryokumaru put his arms around the shoulders of both Minato, who looked surprised, and Katsu, who looked uncomfortable.

"So, when do we leave?"

Jiraiya smiled, putting a hand on his hip. "We leave tomorrow. You Ronin get ready, because I don't intend on messing up our first C-Rank mission!"

But the last bit he just said to himself. "…that normally happens on the second or third."

**

* * *

**

**-End Chapter Eight-**

And there you have it. I'm currently working on a Side Story section for the Yondaime Gaiden, and making sure I plan out the second book. Yes, there is going to be a second book. It will be completed before I die, which I hope is after hell freezes over.

Preview – Chapter Nine: Shattered Mountain

**-Jutsu Library-**

-Kaze no Yaiba-

_(Sword of Wind)_

B-Rank. Ninjutsu. Offensive. This jutsu is canon, but they only use it once, and I don't remember it very well, so I'll just use it in my own way.

-Raiton: Bakuha-

_(Lightning Release: Blast)_

D-Rank. Ninjutsu. Offensive. Piece of crap technique that's the most basic Lightning nature attack you can muster. The chances of hitting someone with it are impossible, but it's just a stepping stone.

**-Team Shade-**

Uchiha Kaori – Age: 24. Gender: female. Rank: Jonin. Element: fire. Kaori has changed a lot over the years, from the traditional Uchiha girl, to a proud kunoichi who doesn't listen to anyone, probably even people she should be listening to. She is a former ANBU ninja who left after receiving an injury, and decided to train a Genin team at the time. She's considered on temporary leave however, and as soon as her Genin become Chuunin, she'll be put back into the ranks. Kaori and Jiraiya's love story is an odd one, but they both feel strongly for each other.

Uchiha Masami – Age: 14. Gender: female. Rank: Genin. Element: fire. She's is the daughter of Kaori's aunt on her mother's side, making Masami and Kaori cousins. The two don't show it, but instead act as student and teacher. Masami suffers from serious ASD, significantly hampering her ability to use Sharingan. Her best friend, Hiroko, used to be her arch nemesis, before they put their clan disputes behind them. She has a hopeless crush on Nemar.

Hyuuga Hiroko – Age: 14. Gender: female. Rank: Genin. Element: none. This Hyuuga isn't as arrogant as the rest, but not because she has anything against behaving that way, but merely because she's too lazy to run around hot headed all the time. Lazy actually describles Hiroko very well. That's also why this tomboy seems to be the weakest of all the members of Team Shade, even though she is easily equal to Masami in combat skill.

Uzumaki Nemar – Age 15. Gender: male. Rank: Genin. Element: wind. Nemar comes from far away, and where exactly that is, no one is certain. What is known is that he's next to being a master swordsman even at his young age, and a genius when it comes to the ninja arts. Despite being the only male on Team Shade, Nemar has survived quite well, probably because he's extremely handsome. Being highly proficient with the sword and Wind nature, Nemar is stronger then Hiroko and Masami combine. His only weakness is madly in love with a certain waitress who doesn't even know who he is.


	9. Shattered Mountain Part I

**A/N:** There is going to be a slight change in grammar from this point foward. For a start, "Jonin" is going to become "Jounin." Why is that? It's because you touch yourself at night.

* * *

Nemar was sweating. Just a bit anyways, and nothing that could be noticed. From the outside, he seemed calm, collected, the coolest thing since refrigerators, as always. But as the clicking of lady's heels got louder, his heart started to pound more and more. At some point in time all his inner organs moved up, so that his heart was in his throat and the empty space where his intestines should be felt all tingly. This, though not physically possible, was the only possible reason, being the coolest thing since refrigerators, it was impossible for Nemar to become nervous, anxious, or shy.

Then the owner of the clicking heels of organ-moving stopped in front of him. She was wearing a modest green skirt that showed only her stocking covered ankles over said clicking and organ moving heels, and a white blouse with short sleeves. She always wore the same smile, which showed teeth so white and perfect that Nemar had trouble looking directly at them, sunny blonde hair, and ocean blue eyes. With the bright colors added to the fact that she looked absolutely like a waitress from heaven, it was no wonder why the ninja couldn't look at her face. Instead, he looked at something else. Breasts.

Yes, Nemar had discovered that women had breasts. They were sort of like air to him, something you always knew was there, but just didn't really notice. Most women's breasts weren't really outgoing enough to notice, except for Kaori-sensei's, but he had never looked at her that way. He hadn't looked at any other girl that way, except this one. That was when the "air" around her became like magnets. It isn't like they were close to his teacher's in size, since Kaori's probably weighed the size of a small dog…each. Instead they made up for it by being perfectly shaped, well rounded even through the blouse, and most importantly, _hers_.

So the only reason he looked away from her face is because it was too awesome to behold. Maybe if Nemar kept telling this to himself long enough, it would be true. Mostly he just pretended to be almost completely illiterate and act like he was trying to read her name tag, which boldly said "Sora."

**-Chapter Nine: Shattered Mountain: Part I-**

The perspiration began almost as soon as they left the boarder of Fire Country, or at least it seemed that way to young Namikaze Minato. Moving through the country quickly meant skipping towns and main roads most of the time, meaning lots of camping and sleeping outside, eating poorly cooked foods boiled in pots, and having no restrooms. It just seemed very unbecoming of a ninja to have to deal with the pains of taking a dump in a pile of bushes. Though the stealth bit tried to make up for that, with how embarrassing being caught with your pants down in that situation would be. Literally.

The boy traded in his white hoodie for a white tee shirt with a blue stripe along the chest, and yellow trim around the collar and sleeves. His blue shorts had a shuriken holder tapped to the side, and held his inventory of other ninja tools in the pouch that hung behind him. His shoes were also quite comfortable for these long walks, being ninja-standard sandals. The brand didn't exactly pop right into his head, and he wasn't interested enough to look on the bottom of his shoe to discover it, but he was glad that Jiraiya had recommended it to him. Besides the form fitting padding, they left plenty of room for his pinky toe.

To his right walked Otonashi Katsu. His hair was raven black and tied into a pony tail that rested on his head, dark eyes looking blankly ahead. He wore a purple t-shirt like Minato, alas a bit more plain, and black shorts, noticeably tighter then Minato's. On his left arm up to his elbow he had a long glove that could only really be described as a light gauntlet, and strapped to his back was what seemed to be a sword encased in a large metal slab of a scabbard. Like any good ninja, he had his little ninja pouch and shuriken holder.

Trailing somewhat behind the two was Rokku Ryokumaru. He had short brown hair, tan skin, and brown eyes. Whereas Katsu and Minato seemed slim, Ryokumaru was athletic looking for his age, taller, and reasonably heavier. He wore kaki shorts with lots of pockets, housing his shuriken holder and ninja pouch. He wore a baggy cream colored shirt with a v-neck.

Jiraiya was up ahead wearing cyan hakama over his loose fitting white kimono. He wasn't wearing the brand of ninja sandals that he had recommended to all his students, but just thong sandals and tabi socks. Minato didn't know where his ninja equipment was kept, if he had any on him at all. Heine was passing some small chat with Jiraiya. Taking a good look at the man with the scruffy beard, Minato concluded again that he wasn't much of a sight. His hair was medium length, medium shade brown tied back into a very short pony tail, and he had on plain cargos and a muscle shirt, being the only one in the group wearing closed toe shoes. His body shape wasn't too bad, and being an archeologist was a good reason. He probably did a lot of lifting of rocks in his job.

The pay for this mission would most likely be good. C-Rank missions were charged by the week, with the first day counting as an entire week itself. They had already been on the road for several days, and would probably take them seven more for them to finish the mission, then the return trip. The Land of Earth was covered with a natural boundary, a mountain range. Though their objective lie on a mountain in that range, that was still a lot of climbing. With the first day being counted as a week, just so the village isn't cheated on pay, a week for to the Land of Earth and back, and another week in the mountains, Minato would make more then Sora did in over a month. He smiled. Though it got to be rough sometimes, the pay really was worth it. No more of this stupid D-Rank mission stuff, he was into the real deal now. The thought just made him more excited.

It also wasn't like there wouldn't be any training along the way. For the past four days Jiraiya had only had them do meager exercises, today he was going to go over Chakra Jumping. The concept was already understood by all of them, and a Shunshin could get the job done, but Chakra Jumping was just a bit more effective. It would probably prove useful when it came time to climb mountains, which according to the map, would be tomorrow afternoon, should travel go as expected.

Jiraiya broke conversation with Heine to drop back and have a word with the boys. "I promised Chakra Jumping to all of you, didn't I?"

Minato nodded for everyone.

"Well, the concept is really simple, so I figured the three of you could do it while we walked. Let me explain. Chakra Jumping is simply using Chakra to push the distance which your body normally travels when you jump. Simple, right? All you have to do is gather Chakra to your feet and repel against the ground or surface you're standing on. It gets tricky with balance, since you don't want your feet flying out in front of you."

"What about tree walking?" Katsu questioned. He was more interested in hanging off of a ceiling then shooting off of the ground.

Jiraiya shrugged. "I'm guessing you mean Chakra Climbing. Well, it's actually just the opposite. Instead of repelling the ground below, you force your feet to stick on it. Though, jumping will probably be better on mountains, and climbing a tree isn't as useful as being able to leap it in a single bound, trust me. I don't think we'll be doing much with Water Walking, since I know you're going to ask that next." Ryokumaru closed his mouth. "We'll probably be stationed around Fire Country, and maybe Earth Country, so not too many big bodies of water. Besides, if you really happen to be next to a lake, just don't fight on it."

"But Jiraiya-sensei! What if we get thrown at the water? Then we'd need to land on it!"

"Well, not necessarily. Chakra Jumping could also be used for like, a Chakra Swimming. Besides, if you get good enough at it, you can leap off the surface of water. If the three of you really want to learn it, it'll probably be best to figure out for yourselves, but for now, Chakra Jumping should be sufficient."

And so the rest of the trip seemed to go pretty well. The team got somewhat tired from all of the Chakra Jumping, but nothing so bad as to really slow down their traveling speed. Heine just watched, as if he was amused by the boy's dedication to perfecting a new useful skill.

Once the mountain range was looming over head, they stopped their practice and just continued to walk, keeping a close eye out for bandits and wild animals. Neither seemed to be an issue.

Though Ryokumaru did look oddly at one rock that they had passed, and caught up to Jiraiya to whisper in his ear. Jiraiya just nodded, and shrugged it off.

The terrain was different then that of the tropical forest of Fire Country. There was much more clay and dirt ground, and the trees weren't as close together. The grass they walked on was long and brown, instead of short and green. The air was also more dry, as well as dusty. Minato's sensitive eyes were irritated in no time, much to his discomfort.

The enemy ninja were upon them before Minato even sensed their presence, being too preoccupied with his own internal thoughts. Katsu seemed to be in the same boat, but Jiraiya and Ryokumaru reacted just fine. Three bronze shuriken flew from the west at Heine, but were quickly knocked off path by three more well thrown shuriken thrown by Jiraiya. From the east, a kunai flew sharply at Heine's head. It was caught mid throw by Ryokumaru. He turned it over in his hand. The shape was identical to a Konoha kunai, which was no surprise, but he noted the bronze, yellowy brown color to the weapon, and the red ribbon that was tied around the ring at the bottom.

"Rock-nin…" He said to himself, but loud enough for everyone to hear. Strangely, Heine didn't seem concerned, as his eyes darted around to see who threw the weapons.

Minato quickly analyzed the situation.

There were ninja on either side of the gravel road, and two more who walked out in front of it. It was also in the afternoon, broad daylight as they would call it, meaning they weren't completely intending on a stealth attack. Ryokumaru seemed to have recognized the different metal used in the weapon making, and proclaimed them from the Hidden Village in the Rock. He looked to his left. There was a man standing, wearing an ivory mask resembling a demon's face. It had two pairs of small horns, two pairs of sharp eyes, and a vertical mouth filled with sharp teeth. Of course, it was all just a brilliant work of art, but it was still intimidating. It was topped off with a symbol on the forehead to mark the village of origin. Ryokumaru was right even before he saw them. They were from Rock.

The man himself had a mane of orange hair that was visible though he wore a mask. His outfit was a dark brown and decorated with light bronze plates. He wasn't a tall man, shorter then Jiraiya, and seemed to be slimmer then he was sturdy. The armor and clothing design reminded Minato of ANBU, but from a foreign country.

He didn't have time to examine the one to his right before the two in front started talking.

"Kirai, it has really been a while," said the one who was approaching him. His mask had the same symbol as all of theirs did, showing their village, but was different then the man with the orange mane. It had a huge mouth with very sharp teeth, and spikes all around the outside, and two large eyes covered in red paint. There were slash marks, either by design or old combat marks, and other red marks that Minato wasn't sure were from paint. Mainly, instead of being fastened to his head like an ANBU mask would, it was chained to him. Once again, Minato didn't know how the ninja could see through the mask, but how he would eat from it was easy. The mouth was actually a hole, and through the shadows you could vaguely make out the man's lower facial features, but not very well.

His armor was very similar, but much darker, almost black, and covered with razors and jagged edges.

The man behind him didn't wear any armor, just a brown kimono, sort of like Jiraiya's, with a white sash and trim, with no hakama. His mask was by far the most demonic, looking like a face twisted in pain with huge horns twisting from the forehead.

"Don't call me that, Akuma."

The ninja who was speaking withdrew what seemed to be his weapon of choice, a whip made of bladed chain links that was previously wrapped around his arm. He let it drop and uncoil, and it wasn't exactly fast either. Just from watching it fall, Minato estimated it being at least five feet in length.

"Why are you here!" The voice beckoned as he neared. It was deep and raspy, the kind that you'd expect to hear in your nightmares.

"Why should I tell you." Heine countered. Akuma growled.

After a certain distance Jiraiya withdrew a kunai that seemed to have been hidden up his deep sleeve. "Watch it buddy, I wouldn't want to have to hurt you." He said, holding the weapon out while standing between him and Heine. He straightened his forehead protector and smiled.

"Ashikaga Jiraiya." He said, recognizing their sensei. "A Hi-Jounin from Konoha. What is someone as skilled as you doing guarding a traitor like him?"

Minato looked confused, but Katsu voiced his question. "Hi-Jounin? That isn't even a rank. Besides, Jiraiya-sensei hasn't been a Jounin that long."

There was a laugh from three of the four Rock ninja. "He's been a Jounin in the bingo books ever since he met the requirements. Or did he not tell you? He refused to become a Jounin for years." Said the one from Minato's left, with the four eyed mask.

"According to the bingo book, I'm only a Hi-Jounin if I'm holding a sword, or have one on me, which I don't." Jiraiya said himself, truthfully.

Minato could almost feel tension coming from Jiraiya. He was still angry with his teacher's refusal to teach him how to fight with a katana.

"But you seem to know a lot about me, and me not much about you." The confrontation was more or less at a stand still right now, but no doubt everyone was evaluating each other while they talked. "Ryokumaru, why don't you tell me what you know."

The blonde looked to his brunette friend, who was staring intently at the man with the large horned mask, in the kimono. "That man is only known as Akuma, a Hi-Jounin from Rock Village. They're Team Oni, a group of hunter nins feared for their combat capabilities over stealth. I noticed a rock back there that was metamorphic, not igneous, like the rocks here should be. I guessed there could have been a reason for it, but when I told Jiraiya, he brought up the fact that they could be enemy ninja hiding."

Jiraiya nodded. "So, Akuma, why would hunter ninja be targeting us? We're not here on an aggressive mission. Actually, we're here for a purely archeological purpose."

"If I had it my way, I'd hunt down and kill everyone who walked past the boarder. Unfortunately, I don't. But that man with you is a Nukenin from our village."

All of the boys looked accusingly at Heine all of the sudden. Only Ryokumaru spoke. "Kirai…that was the name of one of the members of Team Oni…Heine, you lied to us!"

He gritted his teeth when the boy accused him.

Akuma continued. "Turn him over, and be on your way. None of you have any business with our village's affairs."

Jiraiya paused.

"You all have until nightfall to decide whether or not you're up to throwing away your lives. Konoha ninja are somewhat known for doing this though, but I'd rather not have to slaughter brats who can't even put up a good fight. Though…I can at least hope that I will have the honor of killing the son of the Nidaime."

Now the boys looked accusingly at Jiraiya for many long moments. All of the enemy ninja quickly started to retreat at Akuma's hand motion, but Jiraiya gave a command of his own. "Follow them!"

Minato jumped to his right and took off across the plain towards the shinobi he didn't have a good look at. He wasn't sure what Ryokumaru and Katsu did, but he did hear what Jiraiya said next. "A couple of Oni are no match for Ronin!"

That brought a smile to Minato's lips, and he pursued his chosen target without question of why or what to do. He knew that Jiraiya wasn't going to let them think that they were afraid of some hunter nin. And he was right. Minato wasn't afraid one bit.

**-Dokueki-**

She was miles ahead of this brat. Just some stupid wannabe ninja kid under orders to try and follow her to what, show her that he meant business? He was probably shaking in his size-small boxers! Though, Dokueki couldn't pretend she didn't have interest in anything else that might be in there. She licked her lips behind her mask.

The mask itself was much narrower, sharper if you could say, then any of her comrades. The eyes of it were long narrow slits, and the mouth was a shallow impression that had fangs, like that of a snake. Actually, a snake mixed with a woman, mixed with a demon was the appearance she was trying to get when she chose the mask. The only other difference was that it had long threads of black hair that dropped down to her undersized breasts when she was standing. Her real hair was mixed between streaks of purple and green, something that was much easier to remember, or spot, then the simple fake black hair. She wore a plain black body suit, much different then the rest of her teams, with no covering for her feet, besides a strap between the toes and heel, and her hands, which only had a loop that stretched up and around her middle finger.

Though as the mere child started to catch up to her, she was reluctant to admit that he was the same size as her. She, a woman in her twenties, was the same size as a brat that couldn't be older then thirteen!

A steel shuriken shot threw the air and she whirled around to block it with one of her bronze kunai. She only carried four, but she had wasted one earlier. No matter, three was more then enough. She didn't understand how he had thrown it so well though. He was moving, she was moving, and there was at least a hundred feet between them!

She landed on the branch of a tree. They were in the woods, which was pretty thick considering the lack of trees in most other parts of the country. However, it looked bare, maybe skeletal due to the lack of leaves on the trees. They were probably about as cold and dead as the rocks that she was raised on.

She turned around and looked angrily at him, though it wasn't like he could see her face. Him, this little brat had the muscles to throw that far and that accurately! Why couldn't she be gifted with something like that? No, her muscles had to be small and petite, like herself. Kunoichi definitely had it harder. At least, she in particular did.

The kid stopped about a half a dozen trees away from her, a kunai in one hand. He had pretty blue eyes, nice and large, beautiful even, and nice blonde hair. Geez, now she had to fight a blonde? This was just stupid. Blonde envy aside, he was a cute boy.

"What is it, boy!" She hissed, "You think you could take me down? I'm a Chuunin, brat, not a pathetic Genin like you!"

It was true. She'd been a Chuunin for six months now. But still, she was in her twenties when she was finally able to become a real ninja. All of her class had already moved on, some became Jounins, and others had the honor of dying for their country. And what was she doing! She was polishing rocks or fixing uniforms or sewing! And it wasn't because she was a woman either. It was pure discrimination. Just because she was more frail then the average girl didn't mean she wasn't cut out to be a ninja!

"I don't think taking you down is necessary. All I have to do is make sure you stay far away from my village's client, and that you don't have time to regroup to attack us before we reach our destination."

Oh, a smart ass. How grand. Even he thought he was better then her! Everyone did, after all. All the other girls had curves and pretty shoes, or blonde hair! What was she left with? Definitely not curves. And shoes? She was better at climbing barefoot! But what really killed her on the inside was the lack of her blood. She never had her monthly blood. Never! There was a time that Dokueki remembered when she thought she got it, when she was in the shower. But she had only plunged her fingers too far inside of herself. She was so excited when it happened, watching the blood run down her wet leg and then the drain. But no, she was still barren as ever. So instead, she made a habit of slicing herself with kunai every month. Y'know, just so she'd be like other girls and bleed. It was only normal

It was so hurtful, so lonely, knowing that no one your age would look at you, seeing other women who were _younger_ then she was make families! Instead, Dokueki found herself attracted to people who weren't her age, even if they sadly weren't attracted to her. They were the same size as she was. She really liked those little boys, small and innocent, fun to play with. Best of all, they couldn't compare her to anyone else. It always gave her goose bumps of joy when she thought of it.

But now a nice, cute young boy stood in front of her, and he thought he was better then she was! How dare him. How dare him!

She frowned. "How about…no!" She yelled diving at him and throwing a kunai at his feet, and with her other hand, slipping one from behind her back and throwing it at where he would jump back to.

But the first kunai hit his foot and passed through it. She realized that it was a buunshin. That little fuck!

She landed on the branch he wasn't actually on, and grabbed back the kunai in the tree, while taking out another to hold in her hand. Shit, now she only had two. She looked down to see the boy bounding off of a lower tree branch and then body flicker next to her. He slashed, but it was easy to duck under and leap back. See! Being small was helpful. After jumping back and balancing vertically on the tree trunk using Chakra she bounded out and slashed at him with her dual kunai. He dodged, pretty well actually, until she landed on her fists and flipped behind him. It was easy to kick his knees out from under him, and as he started to fall, she moved to slash him.

He dropped flat on his belly to avoid it, and then rolled off of the tree trunk. Once he landed, he threw shuriken upwards just as she was about to jump down onto the other branch which he had landed. This gave him time to draw a new kunai for himself.

Dokueki leapt down herself with her foot forward, and felt skin press to skin as her bare foot smashed into his cheek. He dropped to the ground, but not before she slashed with one hand, catching him slightly on the shoulder. Part of his shirt fell open. He was on his back, but flipped up quickly. She examined the kunai. The once bronze tip was now black from the point to an inch up.

"Lucky you, boy, I probably didn't get enough into you for any serious damage." Unlike the bronze parts, the black bit seemed to be somewhat chipped and jagged.

He looked at his inch deep slash before covering it with one of his hands. "I…don't understand. What is that kunai?"

Dokueki laughed, very happy to answer this question. "Standard kunai in my village. The kunai itself is all lead, with a special bronze paint that serves two purposes. One, it makes it look like a normal metal kunai. Two, it holds in some of the sharp pieces under it. But what makes it special is that it disintegrates when it comes in contact with blood, so the lead pieces get caught in the enemy wound. Ever hear of lead poisoning?" The thought was amusing to her, that a rock could be as venomous as a snake bite.

But there was a huge downside. Because kunai and shuriken were made of lead, they were extremely heavy compared to what other villages used. This is why a strong throwing arm was valued in the Village Hidden in the Rock. This is also why Dokueki had so much trouble using such weapons.

"Lead poisoning…I see." The boy spoke. The hand on his wound started to glow, and then spark, until it was covered with a fine layer of electricity. Suddenly, little specks of lead seemed to cling to his fingers. He moved it away from the wound, and then stopped it, as the small pieces dropped like black dust. Dokueki cursed.

"Using Lightning Manipulation to remove the lead? That's impossible."

He shook his head. "It isn't impossible, just hard. And there is a difference. My Chakra Manipulation is a subcategory of the Lightning Affinity: Magnetic Manipulation. I simply have to assign the metal a polarity and repel or attract to do what I want. I will admit though, that it would have been easier if it was steel, but since the lead was in my body, removing it safely isn't too difficult."

And then the boy seemed as if there was no pain at all. She didn't even notice when he dropped the kunai in his other hand to swipe shuriken from his pouch and hurl them at her, until the very last minute, when she narrowly dodged them.

"That's it! I'm not going to be outsmarted by a little runt like you!" She yelled, throwing the kunai hard, and then watching it miss him utterly. She still had one left, no problem.

The boy and her both ran forward, and their kunai met with a clang. But as he quickly moved to punch her with his free hand, she dropped down and kicked his feet out from under him. As he fell, Dokueki brought the kunai down hard and felt, as well as saw, it sink inches into his lower back, directly on top of the kidney. She smiled as she saw the blood splash from the impact and then pour out of him. He dropped his weapon and seemed to go somewhat limp.

Dokueki kneeled over him, grabbing his head so he could look into his eyes. They were dilated. "Aww, is the poor little boy too tired to go on? Well, isn't that a shame. Too bad I'm not tired at all, darling." She said with a strong hiss and even stronger evil intent right before the blonde Genin passed out.

**-Akuma-**

"A couple of Oni are no match for Ronin!"

The boy in purple dived after Kunou, who quickly made hand seals and seemed to split into five different copies, which all went their own ways. The boy had no chance of catching the orange-headed man now. And Akuma couldn't consider it red, it was vibrant orange. And as much as he wished he would hide it a bit, all the years he had known him he would refuse. Kunou had been a part of Team Oni ever since it started, though he used to be the rookie. Now he was the second oldest member, second to Akuma, of course. It was really sad, considering that he was still the youngest. Kunou was only a child when he joined Team Oni.

When it started, it was Akuma, Kirai, or Heine, or whatever he wants to be called now, Kunou, and a man that went by Rage. Years back, Rage died during a mission to kill Rock Nukenin that were seeking refuge in Wind Country. There were sympathetic Sand ninja, or rather, ninja that wanted Rock Village secrets, were protecting them. It was a hard battle, but since it was a national security matter, failure wasn't an option. Then there was Kirai. Kirai had left the village on his own, something having to do with an archeological hobby gone wild. Akuma never really understood the details, just that his right hand man left him. Rage was replaced with Zaiaku, who was currently behind himself, and there was a vacancy in Team Oni for about a year before they were assigned Dokueki, who had only been with them for about six months.

Akuma grabbed the tip of his chain, which was marked with a palm sized metal ball, decorated with some nasty looking spike.

The boy with brown hair seemed to be sweating hard, yet Jiraiya stood in between both him and Kirai, as well as Akuma and Zaiaku. Did he really think that he could stop his whip?

"Ashikaga, I admire you're courage, but it will only get you killed. Put down that pathetic kunai of yours and turn Kirai over to me.

"How about you get out of my way and I don't kill you."

Akuma chuckled, then threw the lead ball swiftly at Jiraiya. He barely dodged it. And that was in good respect too. Akuma had spent almost all of his ninja career learning to use his chain whip.

However, Jiraiya seemed to be a bit stunned. "That whip…"

"…it's huge!" The boy behind him finished.

Akuma answered their unspoken question. "Every time I kill someone, I add a single link to this chain. So far, it's made of two-hundred and fifty-seven links."

"Which tops out at almost eight feet." Jiraiya finished for him.

"Good observation, Ashikaga. Maybe you should take a closer look." Now that the chain was stretched, Akuma surged Chakra into it and swung his arm viciously to the side, sending the whip repelling off the ground and towards Jiraiya. With all of his training, and Chakra manipulation, Akuma was now able to control every link of his weapon.

Jiraiya tossed his kunai lightly into the air, forming five hand seals, and then catching his kunai, all under a second, and then slashed behind himself, hitting the ball of the chain whip and then ducking, as the whip-lash just passed over his head. His kunai was now a good three feet in length; a short sword now.

The boy in purple was diving at Akuma though, who had been paying attention to Jiraiya. The kid must have realized he wouldn't catch Kunou, so came back to assist here. This is where Zaiaku finally decided to step in. He body flickered behind the boy, in mid air, and close-lined him with his arm. The boy landed hard on his back, and when Zaiaku came down, he planted a fist into his stomach.

Akuma pulled back on the chain to retrieve it as Jiraiya jumped back, and the brunette boy jumped forward, kicking at Zaiaku, who dodged it, and moving to help his friend out of the way. Jiraiya stabbed the long-kunai into the ground and drew two more, tossed them up into the air, and made similar hand seals; twelve this time. There was a puff of smoke, and then he had two other kunai based weapons. One was a four kunai that seemed to share the same bottom ring, but were extended to about foot long blades, a large shuriken in all practicality, and the other was literally just a giant shuriken, one that Jiraiya could barely hold in his hand, different then the long-shuriken that resembled a sword.

Dropping his friend next to Kirai, who was merely standing, the brunette jumped forward, still holding Dokueki's kunai.

"Ryo-chan! Get back here!" Jiraiya yelled at him, but it was too late. Ryo, as Akuma assumed, was headed straight at Zaiaku, who was standing calmly. Ryo slashed, but Zaiaku stepped back with ease.

Akuma spun around swiftly and threw his arm out in front of himself, as the chain slowly follow the motion and shot quickly at Jiraiya. He dropped the shuriken-kunai and took the great-shuriken with two hands, and stabbed it into the ground, then picked up both the recently dropped shuriken-kunai and long-kunai. The whip smashed into the great-kunai, with force enough to leave cracks in it. Then Jiraiya jumped on its top, then leapt into the air. Akuma quickly pulled on the whip for it to return, but Jiraiya was faster. He threw the shuriken-kunai at the ground sharply, and nailed the chain onto the ground. Akuma wasn't happy when he had to let go of his chain to dodge the long-kunai's slash when Jiraiya came sweeping down.

"Hmm, no whip. I guess that means I win."

Akuma was pissed. "No, it means that you still have until nightfall." He swiftly body flickered behind Jiraiya, kicked his legs out from under him, and grabbed the end of his whip. When he landed on his feet again, he pulled on the chain and quickly wrapped it around his arm as he manipulated it, then dodged a slash from Jiraiya's long-kunai.

When Akuma looked over, Ryo was on the ground, and Zaiaku was in possession of the kunai. The boy had bruises, but that seemed to be about it.

"Let's get out of here." He commanded, and then dashed off to the west after Kunou. Neither boy nor Jiraiya tried to pursue.

* * *

**-End Chapter Nine-**

Having concluded my overhaul, I can say that I basically forgot anything I knew about Japanese words and lingo. I can probably manage the honorifics, but besides that, it's gonna have to be full blown English anyways. I don't even know why I bothered with translators in the first place...

Preview – Chapter Ten: Shattered Mountain: Part II


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